It's interesting to see Gates becoming more involved, on an official basis, with the U.S. Federal Government. He's a guy who's always been a politician of sorts, and he's certainly rich enough (and has made enough other people rich, as well) that his support could, theoretically, make or break a modern political campaign.
Now, I don't see Gates reforming his reputation enough to be a plausible candidate himself- well, not for anything more important than Vice President, anyway. But you've got to wonder about a guy whose dream has always been power, money, and more of both. Where else can he go?
I've been considering Lindows as my first non-Microsoft PC OS. Fearing that I would be unable to handle the learning curve of choosing and installing a linux distro AND a suitable desktop GUI, I decided that Lindows might just be the perfect introduction to the *nix environment.
I was not aware that a new version (4.0) was forthcoming. After RTFA, I'm quite sure that Lindows is "where it's at." Anyone care to clue me in to any disadvantages of Lindows versus some other solution?
I've been following the advances in robotics with great interest. They've come a long way, to be sure. But still, there are no consumer level droids available. I have a lot of things around the house that could be done better and faster (and certainly easier) by a robot. But I can't get one.
Will someone please get to work on a small battery with incredible storage capacity and quick charging? Or make a fuel cell powered 'bot that can walk over to the gas tank and refuel himself. Whatever it takes, just make a droid that has a price similar to a car, and I'll buy it.
It should be able to perform normal household duties. I'm talking about cleaning, cooking, answering the phone and watching over the place while I'm gone. I don't think that's too much to ask, but maybe I'm wrong.
Let's look at it like this. "Terror" is not a crime. "Terrorism" is not even a well defined act. When a person commits a "terrorist act," it could be a shooting, or a bombing, or a hijacking, etc. It's only someone's assessment of the motivation to commit the crime that labels that crime as "terrorism." So how is the database going to be limited to terrorists, or even potential terrorists, when all you need to have is a gun or some explosive material? That's a pretty wide group of people in the U.S.
And don't forget that drugs support terrorism. And don't forget that people with large amounts of cash are considered drug dealers. So if you carry large amounts of cash, you are supporting terrorism. So you're in the database simply because you cashed your paycheck and you don't like banks.
Terrorism can be redefined at any time. If you have private software on your machine which could have illegal uses, perhaps you're a terrorist. If you give to the wrong charity, maybe you're supporting terrorism. If you travel to a country "on the list," you're tagged as statistically more likely to commit a terrorist act. If your telephone records show calls to Colombia, you might be a terrorist. If you purchase a copy of the Koran, you are a potential terrorist. If you vote for the "wrong" party or person, you're a terrorist suspect.
This thing is inredible in scope! It will be limited only by the amount of data available. Of course, that's infinite. What exists to stop this program from gaining access to all records of all conduct by all people? I can easily imagine a time when all communication is monitored and probably recorded. All transactions of any type will be logged and entered into the database. All public movements will be captured by electronic eyes, analyzed and stored forever. The location of each car, phone, and every piece of currency will be tracked by satellites. Birds will have cameras implanted and flies will carry tiny microphones. There seems to be no way to stop these things from being developed. Bankers and businessmen will build bunkers below ground, eventually forming a race of subterranean rulers with absolute control of the surface dwellers. I'm sorry, it's too difficult to read about the TIA and not drift into psychotic sci-fi paranoia./endfile
Their job is to sell recorded music. Repeat: recorded music is their commodity.
Lyrics databases are frequented by working musicians all around the country (and world) who play shows at clubs, restaurants, parties, bars, pubs, street corners and elsewhere. The listeners at a lot of these places prefer to dine or drink while listening to music they recognize, and they get easily bored.
Thus, the proliferation of reproduced lyrics and karaoke recordings is seen to be hurting the copyright holders. They can't be in every bar in the country demanding royalties on a public performance, so they have to try to control the content.
But let me just say again what I said at the beginning of the post, this time with emphasis. These people SELL MUSIC. IMO, music is culture. They sell culture. Wherever this happens, naturally one should expect a clash.
...it can't (and won't) be stopped. It probably WILL be taxed, however. When these governments realize how much they could be raking in if there was a postage-like tax on spam messages, they won't be able to resist creating a broad email tax. Think, for instance, how much money postal services must be making off junk mail.
Seems to me that a technology like this should be designed to be attractive to organic growers, since they're far more likely to be interested in a robotic weed killer. But it better have a fuel cell or enviromentally friendly battery, too.
And why kill weeds in place when you can just yank 'em and dump the whole thing in the compost pile? I was expecting a big bot with a couple of graspers on either end and a huge solar energy collecting mast on top.
But really, I just disagree with the premise that agriculture needs to be fully mechanized and automated to help the economy, or whatever tbe argument supporting things like this might actually be.
Over-estimating the combined intelligence of /.
on
Building a Town-Wide LAN?
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· Score: 5, Insightful
I hope no one is making high-level decisions based on the average slashdot thread. It could be the most expensive mistake of your ever shortening career.
This has been coming on for a couple of years, and I suspect that it's only going to get murkier in the near future.
It's time to ask the question: What IS an actor? Strictly speaking, I'd say that the voice and visual inspiration for a digital character is, in fact, an actor. However, the final onscreen character is the result of many people toiling away in many different jobs. The animator, the designer, the painter, the guy who runs the mocap studio... they all have a hand in it.
Perhaps the academy simply needs a new category. Best digital actor, or something similar. Certainly all the work put into something like Gollum deserves more than an fx nomination!
They care about themselves. The executive branch is increasingly refusing to even CONSULT with Congress regarding these admittedly outrageous plans. But you'd be wrong to think that they're blocking this because they give a shit about your rights. They just want to be included... to make sure they have a hand in everything. In this case they're just exercising their right to refuse to fund ANY project in an attempt to get the WH to play ball with them. Otherwise they're going to take their ball and bat and go home, I guess.
I'm on a state no-call list, and it's practically worthless. No all my sales calls have callerID numbers like 999-999-9999. Obviously if my phone privacy can't be protected, this email no-call list will be equally useless.
Not to mention that... I can already see that the no-call list would be the most extensive (and valuable) list ever compiled. Who would secure it and how?
I say it's about time that Carmack stops screwing around with those darn video games (you know, the stuff that pays for his toys) and get serious about starting a full-fledged rocketry company. Sure he's rich, but what has he really done for the world? Advances in low-cost rocketry stand to help us out a lot more than Doom III, yes?
At 100K a year for peroxide, it sounds to me like he might be (gasp!) serious?
Slashdot Mirror
It's interesting to see Gates becoming more involved, on an official basis, with the U.S. Federal Government. He's a guy who's always been a politician of sorts, and he's certainly rich enough (and has made enough other people rich, as well) that his support could, theoretically, make or break a modern political campaign.
Now, I don't see Gates reforming his reputation enough to be a plausible candidate himself- well, not for anything more important than Vice President, anyway. But you've got to wonder about a guy whose dream has always been power, money, and more of both. Where else can he go?
Don't answer that, please.
I've been considering Lindows as my first non-Microsoft PC OS. Fearing that I would be unable to handle the learning curve of choosing and installing a linux distro AND a suitable desktop GUI, I decided that Lindows might just be the perfect introduction to the *nix environment.
I was not aware that a new version (4.0) was forthcoming. After RTFA, I'm quite sure that Lindows is "where it's at." Anyone care to clue me in to any disadvantages of Lindows versus some other solution?
I've been following the advances in robotics with great interest. They've come a long way, to be sure. But still, there are no consumer level droids available. I have a lot of things around the house that could be done better and faster (and certainly easier) by a robot. But I can't get one.
Will someone please get to work on a small battery with incredible storage capacity and quick charging? Or make a fuel cell powered 'bot that can walk over to the gas tank and refuel himself. Whatever it takes, just make a droid that has a price similar to a car, and I'll buy it.
It should be able to perform normal household duties. I'm talking about cleaning, cooking, answering the phone and watching over the place while I'm gone. I don't think that's too much to ask, but maybe I'm wrong.
I'm pretty sure that it's shown on Sci-Fi channel from time to time.
The description in the article reminds me of the fictional workings of the Enterprise warp core.
"Captain, I think we can modulate the dilithium crystal resonance and redirect the warp increase to the forward sensor array!"
In other words, it sounds brilliant without actually making any sense.
Why not? Really? Are you serious?
Let's look at it like this. "Terror" is not a crime. "Terrorism" is not even a well defined act. When a person commits a "terrorist act," it could be a shooting, or a bombing, or a hijacking, etc. It's only someone's assessment of the motivation to commit the crime that labels that crime as "terrorism." So how is the database going to be limited to terrorists, or even potential terrorists, when all you need to have is a gun or some explosive material? That's a pretty wide group of people in the U.S.
And don't forget that drugs support terrorism. And don't forget that people with large amounts of cash are considered drug dealers. So if you carry large amounts of cash, you are supporting terrorism. So you're in the database simply because you cashed your paycheck and you don't like banks.
Terrorism can be redefined at any time. If you have private software on your machine which could have illegal uses, perhaps you're a terrorist. If you give to the wrong charity, maybe you're supporting terrorism. If you travel to a country "on the list," you're tagged as statistically more likely to commit a terrorist act. If your telephone records show calls to Colombia, you might be a terrorist. If you purchase a copy of the Koran, you are a potential terrorist. If you vote for the "wrong" party or person, you're a terrorist suspect.
THAT'S WHY NOT.
This thing is inredible in scope! It will be limited only by the amount of data available. Of course, that's infinite. What exists to stop this program from gaining access to all records of all conduct by all people? I can easily imagine a time when all communication is monitored and probably recorded. All transactions of any type will be logged and entered into the database. All public movements will be captured by electronic eyes, analyzed and stored forever. The location of each car, phone, and every piece of currency will be tracked by satellites. Birds will have cameras implanted and flies will carry tiny microphones. There seems to be no way to stop these things from being developed. Bankers and businessmen will build bunkers below ground, eventually forming a race of subterranean rulers with absolute control of the surface dwellers. I'm sorry, it's too difficult to read about the TIA and not drift into psychotic sci-fi paranoia. /endfile
Their job is to sell recorded music. Repeat: recorded music is their commodity. Lyrics databases are frequented by working musicians all around the country (and world) who play shows at clubs, restaurants, parties, bars, pubs, street corners and elsewhere. The listeners at a lot of these places prefer to dine or drink while listening to music they recognize, and they get easily bored. Thus, the proliferation of reproduced lyrics and karaoke recordings is seen to be hurting the copyright holders. They can't be in every bar in the country demanding royalties on a public performance, so they have to try to control the content. But let me just say again what I said at the beginning of the post, this time with emphasis. These people SELL MUSIC. IMO, music is culture. They sell culture. Wherever this happens, naturally one should expect a clash.
...it can't (and won't) be stopped. It probably WILL be taxed, however. When these governments realize how much they could be raking in if there was a postage-like tax on spam messages, they won't be able to resist creating a broad email tax. Think, for instance, how much money postal services must be making off junk mail.
Seems to me that a technology like this should be designed to be attractive to organic growers, since they're far more likely to be interested in a robotic weed killer. But it better have a fuel cell or enviromentally friendly battery, too.
And why kill weeds in place when you can just yank 'em and dump the whole thing in the compost pile? I was expecting a big bot with a couple of graspers on either end and a huge solar energy collecting mast on top.
But really, I just disagree with the premise that agriculture needs to be fully mechanized and automated to help the economy, or whatever tbe argument supporting things like this might actually be.
I hope no one is making high-level decisions based on the average slashdot thread. It could be the most expensive mistake of your ever shortening career.
This has been coming on for a couple of years, and I suspect that it's only going to get murkier in the near future.
It's time to ask the question: What IS an actor? Strictly speaking, I'd say that the voice and visual inspiration for a digital character is, in fact, an actor. However, the final onscreen character is the result of many people toiling away in many different jobs. The animator, the designer, the painter, the guy who runs the mocap studio... they all have a hand in it. Perhaps the academy simply needs a new category. Best digital actor, or something similar. Certainly all the work put into something like Gollum deserves more than an fx nomination!
They care about themselves. The executive branch is increasingly refusing to even CONSULT with Congress regarding these admittedly outrageous plans. But you'd be wrong to think that they're blocking this because they give a shit about your rights. They just want to be included... to make sure they have a hand in everything. In this case they're just exercising their right to refuse to fund ANY project in an attempt to get the WH to play ball with them. Otherwise they're going to take their ball and bat and go home, I guess.
I'm on a state no-call list, and it's practically worthless. No all my sales calls have callerID numbers like 999-999-9999. Obviously if my phone privacy can't be protected, this email no-call list will be equally useless. Not to mention that... I can already see that the no-call list would be the most extensive (and valuable) list ever compiled. Who would secure it and how?
I say it's about time that Carmack stops screwing around with those darn video games (you know, the stuff that pays for his toys) and get serious about starting a full-fledged rocketry company. Sure he's rich, but what has he really done for the world? Advances in low-cost rocketry stand to help us out a lot more than Doom III, yes? At 100K a year for peroxide, it sounds to me like he might be (gasp!) serious?