"This also brings up something interesting I remember from classes about computability theory. The halting problem can be expressed as: if a turing machine is given a turing machine as an input, can it determine if the input will finish running? Keeping in mind that a turing machine can simulate another turing machine. If one considers the brain a computing device, like a turing machine, then extending the halting problem metaphor, will we ever be able to reverse-engineer the brain to the point that we can recreate it?"
The halting problem is not a metaphor. It is a well defined mathematical problem. Using our brain to create a brain is also a well defined mathematical problem that has no relation witht the halting problem.
(Assuming we are right, and our brain really is a computer.) Recreating our brain is a matter of having enought data about it. We can argue if our brain has enough capacity to hold all that data and compute a usefull result, it probably don't. But that is a useless argument since we are using external storage devices for a few milenia now, and external computation devices for a few decades.
"However, it also presents some less optimistic possibilities: for example, someone might be able to "program" humans as we program computers today."
Not with the current architecture. The easiest* way to program a neural network is trough experience, what we already do and are (mostly) able to perceive.
Now, future architectures may be succeptible to that... We'll have quite a new use for firewalls then.
*By 'easiest' I mean the only way that doesn't need a cumputer several orders of magnitude faster than the one you are programming.
There is a reason people don't go replacing old tools that work, and in a forum about Linux, one'd expect people to know it... It seems the GP doesn't. Now, I always found the Gnome bars cool, but never felt confortable using them. Reading your post I discovered why... I never tought about it with a UI pespective.
And, about:
"As a bonus, it gives you the time (and date, on KDE)"
Date and an easy to access calendar. Don't forget the calendar:)... If only I could find one at my Windows computer at work...
Not so much for K3b, that is only a GUI for several command line tools. But I can't wait untill I can install KDE applications (mainly umbrello) at work.
"I won't go into details here, but anything that can be implemented in hardware can be done in software and the other way around too. This is a nearly ancient Electrical Engineering principle."
Yep, and on a Turing machine, or a neural network... It can even be implemented as a thousand people with pens and paper. That is not the point, what is important is how much time it will take on each of those architectures, and normaly specific hardware is very fast.
"And evolving architechtures is something that I know has had some serious CS research since the early 1970's and perhaps even earlier. I don't think an idea like this is even patentable based on this earlier work in this area. I bet you could find some adaptive systems that were even build specific for the oil industry, which would defeat even a narrow claim of that nature."
But up to today it is still an open problem. Nobody knows how to efficently customize hardware for a general problem.
But I'd need to RTFA to see if there is anything new on it.
"It's true that Microsoft used a "vendor specific" byte in Kerberos protocol to keep SAMBA out (at least for a while). It's not good.
But Microsoft also handles many protocols nicely (as long as it's on the server side), and provides easy to use GUIs to setup and administer them.
For example, let's say I want to store all my infrastructure for user accounts, X509 certificate and DNS services and email configuration on a LDAP directory and would like to access via Kerberos as well."
So, you mean that they abuse their economical power... But it is ok, since they do that with a nice GUI? Or are you saying (falsely) that Microsoft has not extended those protocols? Because they have extended (or tried) almost all of them, DNS being the only exception, and irrelevant since they already tried to extend TCP.
"The setup wizard for Active Directory will handle all these tasks (automatically) in less than 10 minutes (and add 30 minutes setup for Exchange and service packs). Additionally I'll receive many administration GUIs, fully redundant setup and backup programs. (Not including group policy which does not have a good alternative on Linux side yet).
On the other hand the same infrastructure setup on linux (with Fedora Directory Server or similar), requires coding plenty of scripts (LDAP gateway, sendmail configurations, kerberos password migration, etc, etc) and will probably take 3 days at best. Additionally I'll have to setup Amanda and similar backup strategies by hand."
Now, you seem to be very uninformed. There is quite a long time since people don't need to edit sendmail configs for a normal server (unless you talking about setting your netmask), Windows didn't deal with email by that time. There is less time that LDAP gateways and kerberos servers work easily, but they also do. And I'd really like to know what nice backup solution you get on Windows out of the box, even completely ignoring that to set-up amanda one just need to say where to put all those files and what to backup (I really doubt any other solution won't require that information). Someone that already knows those systems may very well configure it all on a day.
And, at leat at my box (hint, it's Debian, one of the most geeky and hard to configure distros out there) there are GUIs for most of those.
"So, I'd either choose to invest $1000 on a Windows Server 2003 license once, or hire an administrator with $1000 more salary per month than a current one.
Unfortunately many enterprises choose the first one"
That tells how good at math are those people... Of course 3 days of work by $1000 a month are much cheapper than $1000 on licences and not accounted work on making all that software work as intented.
And, are you implying that windows doesn't need maintence?!?!?!
But my computer stopped yealling that at me as soon as I stoped developping kernel modules:) (people say it doesn't yell anymore, it is not "professional"). Using just builting modules has lots of advantages, it is a shame you can't do that with Windows.
"And finally the old unix guys will flame about how none of these vulnerabilites would have happened if we would have stayed away from GUIs."
No, to avoid security problems we'd need to avoid networking, and that is not viable. Avoiding GUIs just leads to huge productivity gains and better use of the computer...
"The Wall Street Journal lists many factors contributing to the rapid decline: 800 fewer retail outlets (Tower Records' demise alone closed 89); increasingly negative attitude towards CD sales from big-box retailers (Best Buy now dedicates less floor space to CDs in favor of better-selling items)..."
I guess they would be able to discern the causes from the consequences... But it's the RIAA.
Hint to the mafiaa: Stores try to push people (any/only) stuf that they belive will sell.
"I have been downloading the *EXACT* same books that I have paid Audible for from bittorrent. I have no problem buying Audio Books - but when I buy them, the DRM gets in my way...
So, next time you may want to save the trouble and download it right away... At least the label would listen you (and scream 'pirate', but will listen).
"I have found myself downloading MP3's of music that I already own on CD because it is faster for me to download the music that I already have, than to go through my CD collection and rip all the music."
Ripping a CD colledction may be much easier than you think... And you'll get a much better quality.
Yes, it's sarcasm. Also because if you give 10% of your money to some unproductive beast like the RIAA, you'd be near 7% poor year after year. That is not a sustainable situation.
Wouldn't that be an oligopoly? But that is besides the point, because such oligopoly is not possible. Brazil can at most supply 20% of the fuel used on the world nowadays, more than that, it would need to reduce other crops. USA is on a much worse situation, it can't even supply 10% of the world needs, even if it adopts modern crop technologies, what seems unlikely nowadays. Those are 2 huge players, but far from supplying the majority of the market.
The situation is even better because there are LOTS of countries that can supply 1% - 10% of the world's demand, and togheter they don't need Brazil or USA.
The only problem is that those figures are calculated with today's consuption. Who knows what may happen tomorrow...
"Live in such conditions 24/7 for a month or so and you'll build up additional hemoglobin in your blood until (like people who live at altitude) you're just fine. (I don't know if you'll get back to "full power" living in them 8/5, though.)"
I don't know either, but I can tell you that you'll get a bit more than full power when you get out of that room:).
Slashdot Mirror
The halting problem is not a metaphor. It is a well defined mathematical problem. Using our brain to create a brain is also a well defined mathematical problem that has no relation witht the halting problem.
(Assuming we are right, and our brain really is a computer.) Recreating our brain is a matter of having enought data about it. We can argue if our brain has enough capacity to hold all that data and compute a usefull result, it probably don't. But that is a useless argument since we are using external storage devices for a few milenia now, and external computation devices for a few decades.
Not with the current architecture. The easiest* way to program a neural network is trough experience, what we already do and are (mostly) able to perceive.
Now, future architectures may be succeptible to that... We'll have quite a new use for firewalls then.
*By 'easiest' I mean the only way that doesn't need a cumputer several orders of magnitude faster than the one you are programming.
Somebody, please mod the AC up.
Take a look at libtrash. I installed it since I lost some works a few years ago... And it already saved me some times :)
We don't. We used to, but stopped doing that by 97. We just don't have enough money, and much better places to put it.
There is a reason people don't go replacing old tools that work, and in a forum about Linux, one'd expect people to know it... It seems the GP doesn't. Now, I always found the Gnome bars cool, but never felt confortable using them. Reading your post I discovered why... I never tought about it with a UI pespective.
And, about:
Date and an easy to access calendar. Don't forget the calendar
We've also done that, it's called typewriter... But doesn't seems so sucessfull now, it seems most people like 'hard' better.
It's a hard rule, every time we dumb computers down, the less are we able to get from them. It is so unreasonable to persue a single standard.
Let's not forget the FSF style concern 0:
0. It IS broken.
The patent clauses didn't all go away. Some (it seems that the most important) where incorporated at the main text and aren't exceptions anymore.
Maybe you should fix your ENTER key before Windows...
Not so much for K3b, that is only a GUI for several command line tools. But I can't wait untill I can install KDE applications (mainly umbrello) at work.
Yep, and on a Turing machine, or a neural network... It can even be implemented as a thousand people with pens and paper. That is not the point, what is important is how much time it will take on each of those architectures, and normaly specific hardware is very fast.
But up to today it is still an open problem. Nobody knows how to efficently customize hardware for a general problem.
But I'd need to RTFA to see if there is anything new on it.
But you could read the eula BEFORE oppening the bag?!?!? Amateurs...
So, you mean that they abuse their economical power... But it is ok, since they do that with a nice GUI? Or are you saying (falsely) that Microsoft has not extended those protocols? Because they have extended (or tried) almost all of them, DNS being the only exception, and irrelevant since they already tried to extend TCP.
Now, you seem to be very uninformed. There is quite a long time since people don't need to edit sendmail configs for a normal server (unless you talking about setting your netmask), Windows didn't deal with email by that time. There is less time that LDAP gateways and kerberos servers work easily, but they also do. And I'd really like to know what nice backup solution you get on Windows out of the box, even completely ignoring that to set-up amanda one just need to say where to put all those files and what to backup (I really doubt any other solution won't require that information). Someone that already knows those systems may very well configure it all on a day.
And, at leat at my box (hint, it's Debian, one of the most geeky and hard to configure distros out there) there are GUIs for most of those.
That tells how good at math are those people... Of course 3 days of work by $1000 a month are much cheapper than $1000 on licences and not accounted work on making all that software work as intented.
And, are you implying that windows doesn't need maintence?!?!?!
But my computer stopped yealling that at me as soon as I stoped developping kernel modules :) (people say it doesn't yell anymore, it is not "professional"). Using just builting modules has lots of advantages, it is a shame you can't do that with Windows.
"And finally the old unix guys will flame about how none of these vulnerabilites would have happened if we would have stayed away from GUIs."
No, to avoid security problems we'd need to avoid networking, and that is not viable. Avoiding GUIs just leads to huge productivity gains and better use of the computer...
I guess they would be able to discern the causes from the consequences... But it's the RIAA.
Hint to the mafiaa: Stores try to push people (any/only) stuf that they belive will sell.
You can leak an algorithm (or protocol) into public domain. Just rewrite it and put into public domain.
You can't leak the original document.
Yes, it's sarcasm. Also because if you give 10% of your money to some unproductive beast like the RIAA, you'd be near 7% poor year after year. That is not a sustainable situation.
Knowing is a good practice... But publishing those results is dubious.
Just give then a little more power and we'll see how just is the comparation.
My bet is that they'll become quiet with some 10% of the economy as tribute, so it is unfair.
Wouldn't that be an oligopoly? But that is besides the point, because such oligopoly is not possible. Brazil can at most supply 20% of the fuel used on the world nowadays, more than that, it would need to reduce other crops. USA is on a much worse situation, it can't even supply 10% of the world needs, even if it adopts modern crop technologies, what seems unlikely nowadays. Those are 2 huge players, but far from supplying the majority of the market.
The situation is even better because there are LOTS of countries that can supply 1% - 10% of the world's demand, and togheter they don't need Brazil or USA.
The only problem is that those figures are calculated with today's consuption. Who knows what may happen tomorrow...
"Corn isn't especially good for this purpose, but I believe this claim is false. Berkley's study computes the whole process at a 1.3x net fuel gain."
Now compare that with the 10x net fuel gain of canae...
I don't know either, but I can tell you that you'll get a bit more than full power when you get out of that room :).