Hell, even Linksys figured out that it was better to go along with the folks that write alternate firmware (I run Tomato on a WRT54G V4 myself) than try to lock them out. Of course, it took them a while to grok that. Linksys wouldn't have made a penny from me otherwise: their stock firmware is something of a joke in comparison.
In the modern world it is the firmware that distinguishes one piece of commodity hardware from another. People seeking to improve upon your stock firmware may be doing you a favor by giving your customers even more reason to buy your products. When viewed from the proper perspective, they're making your product more valuable, not less.
Nobody else has a real live Reality Distortion Field. We're special.
No you're not. Congress built one of those things a couple hundred years ago, and it's been running continuously ever since. That's why things just seem a little bit off in D.C.
Would this ever lead to drug testing researchers that announce amazing new scientific breakthroughs? (sort of far fetched but an interesting idea nonetheless).
Sure it would. I can see it now:
"I just got the results of your drug test... apparently you've not been taking your drugs. They're a job requirement you know. I understand that the enhancer pills give you migraines, but we promised BigMegaCorp that breakthrough they've been wanting, and you do like your job, don't you?"
'We want to empower the robot and make it more autonomous.' When the robot uprising happens I will not help humanity precisely because of statements like these
I wouldn't worry too much until you start hearing statements like "We want to empower the super-smart AI and make it more autonomous."
Please don't think I have anything against Islam exclusively. I was raised as Catholic, and I find that religion for more reprehensible. It's not that I'm anti-religion per se... I am merely anti war-mongering, fear-mongering, child molesting, brain washing, suicide bombing, etc.
My parents are ex-Catholic. Fortunately their awakening came long before I was born.
Seriously though, you don't need to have any of the attributes you mention to move your domains from NetSol. I also have some domains there, and will be moving them (for this and other reasons.) Me, I'm anti-censorship, which is in itself sufficient reason to move away from a registrar that believes it has any right to turn off Web sites in other countries without some semblance of due process. Once they start taking sides like this (and they are, whether they want to admit it or not) it's time to find someone with more respect for the Domain Name System, and freedom of information in general.
Can anyone recommend a decent registrar? I don't want one that claims ownership of my domains and will hold them hostage.
I tend to agree. When promising new technologies take too long to develop, by the time they become practical they are often supplanted by something else. We will have both, since our civilization's need for both more energy and more processing power is going continue unabated for a long time.
We may never have either nuclear fusion or quantum computing, as currently envisioned. As you say, it's impossible to predict. All we can say with some assurance is that we'll probably figure out something that will achieve the same ends.
The problem with a mesh network is that you have a serious chicken-and-egg problem. It's not going to do work well (or at all) until you get enough of your population using it, and you can't get enough of them to use it until it works well. Mesh networking will probably be piggybacked on the deployment some other wireless technology, and will be used to supplement it.
This is all I ask: that Bush doesn't serve a third term.
He can't anyways. This is his second term, and that's all the President of the United States gets. Congress saw to that a long time ago. Now if they would just apply term limits to themselves, this country would be a much happier place.
I'd say it's more akin to certain elements in the Muslim world attacking comic strips in foreign countries, if you want to compare (ahem!) Apples to oranges. Apple fans have often (and for good reason) been compared to... fanatics.
In this context, I define a "fanatic" as someone who sticks to his guns whether they're loaded or not.
The you're dead, just like you'll be if that doctor doesn't have what it takes to help you. Put it this way: if you have a competent ER physician on hand with the right equipment, you have a chance. Personally, I want that doctor to have the best medical technology available, because I want to live.
As I understand it, the primary function of saccades is to prevent retinal fatigue. Experiments have been performed where a grain-of-wheat lamp was literally glued to the eyeball. That way, the light source would move with the eye, and the corresponding image would be focused on the same area of the retina, regardless of eye motion. Within a few seconds, the image would fade and the light would become invisible as the retinal pigments were exhausted.
This effect is even more noticeable with people who suffer constant exposure to low-light conditions (miners, for example) which induces grossly exaggerated saccades. I did software development for a research lab back in the early eighties: we monitored eye motion using a pair of infrared glasses. It was interesting stuff: we tested people with all kind of neurological and physical problems, the idea being that variations in these repetitive eye motions could have diagnostic value. I left the project once the software was done: I don't know what might have come of it.
I feel this is going in the opposite direction of what I hope for medicine. Distancing doctors from patients, and life from reality may prove a nasty combo.
Well, it's a good thing most of us aren't hoping for the same things you are. Most sophisticated medical technology "distances" a doctor from his patient to some degree... like, for example, a stethoscope. Should a doctor be required to press his ears against a patient's chest to listen the heart and lungs?
The issue here is that the human body has substantial limitations, and there is nothing unethical about augmenting a physician's natural abilities. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Those movements are called "sacchades" and they are important to preventing retinal fatigue. They're actually fairly predictable and it shouldn't be hard to average them out.
"It shows you the tumour in relation to its anatomical structure," Darzi said. That means the surgeon can be more precise and avoid cutting out large amounts of healthy tissue.
Lack of precision isn't the only reason surgeons remove large amounts of apparently "healthy" tissue along with a tumor... it's to make sure they get all of it.
Slashdot Mirror
So, when do I get my 360 GHz sixteen core processor?
The Sony Playstation 36, Holodeck Edition.
Hell, even Linksys figured out that it was better to go along with the folks that write alternate firmware (I run Tomato on a WRT54G V4 myself) than try to lock them out. Of course, it took them a while to grok that. Linksys wouldn't have made a penny from me otherwise: their stock firmware is something of a joke in comparison.
In the modern world it is the firmware that distinguishes one piece of commodity hardware from another. People seeking to improve upon your stock firmware may be doing you a favor by giving your customers even more reason to buy your products. When viewed from the proper perspective, they're making your product more valuable, not less.
Nah. Just duct-tape them to a chair dangling over a cliff, and I guarantee your conversation will be productive.
Nobody else has a real live Reality Distortion Field. We're special.
No you're not. Congress built one of those things a couple hundred years ago, and it's been running continuously ever since. That's why things just seem a little bit off in D.C.
Would this ever lead to drug testing researchers that announce amazing new scientific breakthroughs? (sort of far fetched but an interesting idea nonetheless).
... apparently you've not been taking your drugs. They're a job requirement you know. I understand that the enhancer pills give you migraines, but we promised BigMegaCorp that breakthrough they've been wanting, and you do like your job, don't you?"
Sure it would. I can see it now:
"I just got the results of your drug test
'We want to empower the robot and make it more autonomous.' When the robot uprising happens I will not help humanity precisely because of statements like these
I wouldn't worry too much until you start hearing statements like "We want to empower the super-smart AI and make it more autonomous."
Sounds a lot like James Burke's Connections.
Please don't think I have anything against Islam exclusively. I was raised as Catholic, and I find that religion for more reprehensible. It's not that I'm anti-religion per se... I am merely anti war-mongering, fear-mongering, child molesting, brain washing, suicide bombing, etc.
My parents are ex-Catholic. Fortunately their awakening came long before I was born.
Seriously though, you don't need to have any of the attributes you mention to move your domains from NetSol. I also have some domains there, and will be moving them (for this and other reasons.) Me, I'm anti-censorship, which is in itself sufficient reason to move away from a registrar that believes it has any right to turn off Web sites in other countries without some semblance of due process. Once they start taking sides like this (and they are, whether they want to admit it or not) it's time to find someone with more respect for the Domain Name System, and freedom of information in general.
Can anyone recommend a decent registrar? I don't want one that claims ownership of my domains and will hold them hostage.
Well, I once went to the car dealer and bought a new Olds.
I tend to agree. When promising new technologies take too long to develop, by the time they become practical they are often supplanted by something else. We will have both, since our civilization's need for both more energy and more processing power is going continue unabated for a long time.
We may never have either nuclear fusion or quantum computing, as currently envisioned. As you say, it's impossible to predict. All we can say with some assurance is that we'll probably figure out something that will achieve the same ends.
The problem with a mesh network is that you have a serious chicken-and-egg problem. It's not going to do work well (or at all) until you get enough of your population using it, and you can't get enough of them to use it until it works well. Mesh networking will probably be piggybacked on the deployment some other wireless technology, and will be used to supplement it.
This is all I ask: that Bush doesn't serve a third term.
He can't anyways. This is his second term, and that's all the President of the United States gets. Congress saw to that a long time ago. Now if they would just apply term limits to themselves, this country would be a much happier place.
I'd say it's more akin to certain elements in the Muslim world attacking comic strips in foreign countries, if you want to compare (ahem!) Apples to oranges. Apple fans have often (and for good reason) been compared to ... fanatics.
In this context, I define a "fanatic" as someone who sticks to his guns whether they're loaded or not.
I am so glad I am not a woman with really nice tits.
Yeah. Me too.
and that quick thinking decision kills me?
The you're dead, just like you'll be if that doctor doesn't have what it takes to help you. Put it this way: if you have a competent ER physician on hand with the right equipment, you have a chance. Personally, I want that doctor to have the best medical technology available, because I want to live.
As I understand it, the primary function of saccades is to prevent retinal fatigue. Experiments have been performed where a grain-of-wheat lamp was literally glued to the eyeball. That way, the light source would move with the eye, and the corresponding image would be focused on the same area of the retina, regardless of eye motion. Within a few seconds, the image would fade and the light would become invisible as the retinal pigments were exhausted.
This effect is even more noticeable with people who suffer constant exposure to low-light conditions (miners, for example) which induces grossly exaggerated saccades. I did software development for a research lab back in the early eighties: we monitored eye motion using a pair of infrared glasses. It was interesting stuff: we tested people with all kind of neurological and physical problems, the idea being that variations in these repetitive eye motions could have diagnostic value. I left the project once the software was done: I don't know what might have come of it.
"What are we going to do today, Brin?
... try and take over the world!"
"Same thing we always do, Larry
I feel this is going in the opposite direction of what I hope for medicine. Distancing doctors from patients, and life from reality may prove a nasty combo.
... like, for example, a stethoscope. Should a doctor be required to press his ears against a patient's chest to listen the heart and lungs?
Well, it's a good thing most of us aren't hoping for the same things you are. Most sophisticated medical technology "distances" a doctor from his patient to some degree
The issue here is that the human body has substantial limitations, and there is nothing unethical about augmenting a physician's natural abilities. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Presumably the software running the show will have safeguards against such transient behavior.
Those movements are called "sacchades" and they are important to preventing retinal fatigue. They're actually fairly predictable and it shouldn't be hard to average them out.
"It shows you the tumour in relation to its anatomical structure," Darzi said. That means the surgeon can be more precise and avoid cutting out large amounts of healthy tissue.
... it's to make sure they get all of it.
Lack of precision isn't the only reason surgeons remove large amounts of apparently "healthy" tissue along with a tumor
Says ICL Professor Guang Zhong Yang
Now that's a good, traditional British name. Wonder what his family crest looks like.
but is it a Robot Chicken? If so, it's important to remember that when you're playing chicken the first one to blink loses.
That is a brilliant formation of an argument! Completely a priori, so it stands on its own without any experiential proof.
Yep. Just about as reasonable as the original claim that Macs have never been cracked, huh.
I don't care if this thing makes hot grits for me in the morning.
... but if you could call Natalie Portman on the thing I'll bet you'd be singing a different tune.
Sure, you say that now