It's just about 4400 times the diameter of our galaxy. So imagine the milky way were your house. Of course I don't know the diameter of your house, but let's just assume it's something like 10 meters. Then in relation it would be 44 km away. Ok, I admit, that's not really "nearby" any more... but then, thinking of it, the center of gravitation of a geek is his computer, so make that about half a meter, so the distance shrinks to 2.2 km... would you accept that as nearby, or do I have to mention that the really important part of the computer is the CPU anyway?:-)
However, I've made an additional observation. Not only does a non-running computer produce fewer errors, but a non-written algorithm also contains fewer bugs. Therefore the next logical step is to make the non-running computer give you the answer without even writing the algorithm!
The key is tail call recursion, although I admit the way I've written it isn't ideal for it because there's an operation after the call; I'm not sure if a realistic optimizer could optimize this well. An explicit tail-recursive version would be:
int sumArrayPlusConst(int* array, int elements, int initial) {
if (elements == 0)
return initial;
else
return sumArrayPlusConst(array + 1, elements - 1, initial + *array); }
int sumArray(int* array, int elements) {
return sumArrayPlusConst(array, elements, 0); }
This can trivially be converted to the iterative form by an optimizer using tail call recursion optimization.
Had Farnsworth instead published his work in some scientific journal, we would also have had a record on what he did. It's not that patents are the only way to reveal information to the public.
Well, the point about copyright is about copy. If someone who never heared about Harry Potter would sit down on himself and write a book which turns out by pure chance to be word for word identical to the existing one, it would not be copyright violation. However, it's very unlikely than anyone would believe him, because it's very unlikely that this would happen.
Basically in copyright cases, the difficult part is to proof or disproof that there was indeed a copy involved. The similarities are important because they are indications for or against copying. The additional problem with changed copies is of course to determine how much of the changed document is really copy, and how much is just using the concepts. That's also the point of clean-room reimplementations: By doing so you give evidence completely separate from the produced work itself that the work itself isn't a copy, but just a reimplementation of the same concepts.
You also could have used a makeashorterlink URL. Which would have the advantage that one can first have a look at the real link to find out if it really points to the expected (after all, noone hinders you to make a tinyurl link to goatse, and then claim it's to some other, work-safe site). I almost never click on tinyurl links. People who don't want the intermediate site can disable it. Note that it is not the creator of the link who disables the page, but the user of the link.
BTW, you would also have had the option to use a plain old HTML anchor tag, so slashdot wouldn't have to parse the URL. Or to replace the problematic characters (commas, I guess?) by their hex replacement (%xx where xx are the corresponding hex digits, e.g. %2C for the comma).
Bah, 100GB. With all his other claims, I'm sure this guy already has the 100Tb network ready at that time. However, a few years from that, you'll not need it any more because you can get his great prediction program, which just will accurately predict whatever traffic you would get on your network, and therefore you can avoid to actually transfer the data.
Was Foxpro GPLed? That's one of the virtues of Open Source: Even if a company decides to stop development, it's not necessarily dead. Everyone with the needed knowledge can step in, take the code and continue development. So if, say, Novel considered MySQL important enough for their Linux business, they could have stepped in, hired a few database guys, and continued development on their own. The only way an OSS project can die is if there's no one interested in developing it further. And even then, the code is still there for others to use.
Good point. However, by mixing the complementary color, you get a "white component", that is, you don't get a pure blue, but a light blue... wait, isn't that the name of the company? Now we know why!:-)
That won't work: There's no red light in the blue-violet laser. Indeed, the laser has just one exact wavelength, so a filter could not change its color (because the color change is done by absorbing different wavelengths). The "problem" is within our eyes, because our red-receptors don't just react to "red light" (longest visible waves), but also to "blue-violet light" (shortest visible waves). So unless you find a way to create "negative red" (i.e. a sort of light which suppresses the red receptors instead of activating them), there's no way to supress that "red".
Well, that kind of supports the claim that an AI that plays Go at master player level would have to be quite sophisticated, doesn't it? After all, he didn't claim that you would actually succeed in finding it, did he?
Slashdot Mirror
But what if I'm on the freeway during rush hour?
It's just about 4400 times the diameter of our galaxy. So imagine the milky way were your house. Of course I don't know the diameter of your house, but let's just assume it's something like 10 meters. Then in relation it would be 44 km away. Ok, I admit, that's not really "nearby" any more ... but then, thinking of it, the center of gravitation of a geek is his computer, so make that about half a meter, so the distance shrinks to 2.2 km ... would you accept that as nearby, or do I have to mention that the really important part of the computer is the CPU anyway? :-)
Now you know why DNF was never released. It works much better this way!
You mean, it's already not running.
However, I've made an additional observation. Not only does a non-running computer produce fewer errors, but a non-written algorithm also contains fewer bugs. Therefore the next logical step is to make the non-running computer give you the answer without even writing the algorithm!
You code fails if elements == 0.
Had Farnsworth instead published his work in some scientific journal, we would also have had a record on what he did. It's not that patents are the only way to reveal information to the public.
Well, the point about copyright is about copy. If someone who never heared about Harry Potter would sit down on himself and write a book which turns out by pure chance to be word for word identical to the existing one, it would not be copyright violation. However, it's very unlikely than anyone would believe him, because it's very unlikely that this would happen.
Basically in copyright cases, the difficult part is to proof or disproof that there was indeed a copy involved. The similarities are important because they are indications for or against copying. The additional problem with changed copies is of course to determine how much of the changed document is really copy, and how much is just using the concepts. That's also the point of clean-room reimplementations: By doing so you give evidence completely separate from the produced work itself that the work itself isn't a copy, but just a reimplementation of the same concepts.
IANAL however.
Please give either the original URL or a makeashorterlink URL, so there's a chance to see the real destination before going there.
You misspelled "reading Slashdot".
Thanks, now I don't feel so bad any more for not knowing anything about MySpace ;-)
You also could have used a makeashorterlink URL. Which would have the advantage that one can first have a look at the real link to find out if it really points to the expected (after all, noone hinders you to make a tinyurl link to goatse, and then claim it's to some other, work-safe site). I almost never click on tinyurl links.
People who don't want the intermediate site can disable it. Note that it is not the creator of the link who disables the page, but the user of the link.
BTW, you would also have had the option to use a plain old HTML anchor tag, so slashdot wouldn't have to parse the URL. Or to replace the problematic characters (commas, I guess?) by their hex replacement (%xx where xx are the corresponding hex digits, e.g. %2C for the comma).
You mean, profiles like: "I like programming very much, esp. with languages like Lisp and Scheme"?
Ok, but what will you do if someone shuts down the internet?
Bah, 100GB. With all his other claims, I'm sure this guy already has the 100Tb network ready at that time. However, a few years from that, you'll not need it any more because you can get his great prediction program, which just will accurately predict whatever traffic you would get on your network, and therefore you can avoid to actually transfer the data.
Was Foxpro GPLed? That's one of the virtues of Open Source: Even if a company decides to stop development, it's not necessarily dead. Everyone with the needed knowledge can step in, take the code and continue development. So if, say, Novel considered MySQL important enough for their Linux business, they could have stepped in, hired a few database guys, and continued development on their own.
The only way an OSS project can die is if there's no one interested in developing it further. And even then, the code is still there for others to use.
Good point. However, by mixing the complementary color, you get a "white component", that is, you don't get a pure blue, but a light blue ... wait, isn't that the name of the company? Now we know why! :-)
Power generator mysteriously vanised in the Bermuda sea!
That won't work: There's no red light in the blue-violet laser. Indeed, the laser has just one exact wavelength, so a filter could not change its color (because the color change is done by absorbing different wavelengths). The "problem" is within our eyes, because our red-receptors don't just react to "red light" (longest visible waves), but also to "blue-violet light" (shortest visible waves). So unless you find a way to create "negative red" (i.e. a sort of light which suppresses the red receptors instead of activating them), there's no way to supress that "red".
If they make a monochrome projector, I'd at least expect a light blue one!
Well, if it has been set up competently, it surely won't use the built-in encryption, especially if it is well-known that it has a backdoor.
Well, that kind of supports the claim that an AI that plays Go at master player level would have to be quite sophisticated, doesn't it? After all, he didn't claim that you would actually succeed in finding it, did he?
Anything? Never heared of it. Where do I get a compiler or interpreter?