I have had the wonderful opportunity of being able to check out all the Connections shows on DVD from my local library (they're by far the best non-fiction TV programs I have ever seen), and I recall this particular bit. At the risk of splitting hairs, I don't believe he was hammering the point of everything we carry being mass-produced; rather, he was saying that if you ask the average person to empty his or her pockets, you'd find that pretty much everyone carries the same things (keys, money, pen, lighter, etc) that you do. His point was about homogeny, not technology.
I use felt-tip or liquid ink ball-points on a soft surface (put some paper behind what you're writing on). That may not help you on a tablet PC...
I disagree - if you used a felt-tip pen on a tablet PC, your co-workers will totally forget about your sloppy handwriting: they'll be much more interested in canning your ass for ruining the third tablet PC in a week by covering it in Sharpie.
This is an interesting story and all, but what would make it really cool is if the guy who was to become the new CEO had the same last name as a celebrity of some sort.*
*(Yes, Kevin Rollins has the same last name as Henry Rollins. It's a fucking laugh riot, like when a clown gets hacked to pieces with a butterknife - now please stop posting about it.)
I think that when people press an elevator or traffic crossing button more than once, it's more likely due to the fact that they think themselves to be stuck relatively helpless in a situation beyond their control. Pushing the buttons repeatedly is a way of attempting to gain control over that situation (at least in a mental masturbatory sort of way). Even though it does not work, it can't hurt, and it gives people the feeling that even if they're not in control of the unfavorable situation, they're doing all they can, by god.:)
I think you are right on about the "sympathetic pressing of the elevator button" though; that seems to be a way of declaring that you have benign intentions.
I don't get it - what exactly does this guy do with the 2.2 kernel? Just bugfixes? How does he know he's not working hard to fix a bug that was fixed by someone who noticed it in 2.4 or 2.6?
Not knocking the guy or anything, I'm just absolutely baffled as to what he does with the 2.2 kernel.
I personally like the ones with homoerotic overtones:
man touch
man perl
man unzip
man units
man curl
man flex
man tcl
man gawk
man paste
man mount
Why do I have the sudden urge to write a program called "chowder"?
Knuth was born in 1938, making him 65-66 years old, 72-73 when the planned release of Volume 5 comes around. It's going to be a tight squeeze no doubt, but it's not impossible; Knuth could pull a Chomsky and keep on writing books into his eighties.
This is actually common practice for head-shavers. Bic once, then keep your melon smooth by applying an electric razor daily (since most folk of the head-shaving persuasion dislike hair length oscillations no matter how minor as well as the idea of straightrazor shaving daily). Does this turn them into Nazis? YOU MAKE THE CALL!
Celebrity endorsements! Thats just the ticket to get the arcade industry back! Anyone up for a game of "Danza Danza Revolution"?
Re:Pharmaceutical Industry?
on
Cyberchondria
·
· Score: 5, Funny
With advertisements on TV for drugs to cure diseases people haven't even heard of, its logical that consumers will respond.
Don't forget the extremely vague and universal symptoms listed in the advertisements:
If you've ever felt depressed, disappointed, been discouraged, or have in any way failed to any extent in any endeavor you have ever attempted, ask your doctor about Lobotomol.
Good points - I would point out that I think you touched on answering your own concern here though:
Now going back to your first point, even if we have a NeuroPentium processor, we still need to do some serious non-intuitive engineering to create the base hardware that can intuitively interact with our world. And this issue does not even address the fact that so many business world applications (like accounting packages and tax software) represent fundamentally non-intuive problem domains.
What the 'NeuroPentium' would ideally do then is to assign things like accounting and tax functions (the number-crunching parts, at least; if you know any accountants you know that it can be a very creative business as well) to the regular style of computation, which is what you just did when you said "accounting and tax software is non-intuitive"! A processor modeled on the brain would look at that type of problem, say the same thing, and let a number-cruncher chew on it. And that says a lot about the ultimate aim of artificial intelligence: making a machine that amplifies our strengths yet has little or none of our faults.
I like the idea of intuitive programming, but suspect that computers are grounded in logic and that logic is not an intuitive concept.
However, by the same token the very systems which make us "intuitive" and pattern-oriented are subject to the laws of science which are grounded in logic, no?
I agree with you, but only temporarily - I think it's only a matter of time (more specifically, time to figure out exactly how we do this kind of thing)
Comcast has placed this bid in spite of the fact that the company's president, Brian Roberts, is 5'4", a good three inches shorter than the "You Must Be This Tall to Aquire" statue outside Disney headquarters.
Slashdot Mirror
"Private CmdrTaco"? I guess his only hope to avoid being made fun of is to work his way up to lieutenant.
I have had the wonderful opportunity of being able to check out all the Connections shows on DVD from my local library (they're by far the best non-fiction TV programs I have ever seen), and I recall this particular bit. At the risk of splitting hairs, I don't believe he was hammering the point of everything we carry being mass-produced; rather, he was saying that if you ask the average person to empty his or her pockets, you'd find that pretty much everyone carries the same things (keys, money, pen, lighter, etc) that you do. His point was about homogeny, not technology.
If anyone was confused by that last phrase, in the article it's printed as "$10^6" == "Looks like a million dollars".
I use felt-tip or liquid ink ball-points on a soft surface (put some paper behind what you're writing on). That may not help you on a tablet PC... I disagree - if you used a felt-tip pen on a tablet PC, your co-workers will totally forget about your sloppy handwriting: they'll be much more interested in canning your ass for ruining the third tablet PC in a week by covering it in Sharpie.
"Dude that DOS attack was so seven-three-three-plus sign!"
This is an interesting story and all, but what would make it really cool is if the guy who was to become the new CEO had the same last name as a celebrity of some sort.* *(Yes, Kevin Rollins has the same last name as Henry Rollins. It's a fucking laugh riot, like when a clown gets hacked to pieces with a butterknife - now please stop posting about it.)
Not queen, Not jack, Not prince.
I think that when people press an elevator or traffic crossing button more than once, it's more likely due to the fact that they think themselves to be stuck relatively helpless in a situation beyond their control. Pushing the buttons repeatedly is a way of attempting to gain control over that situation (at least in a mental masturbatory sort of way). Even though it does not work, it can't hurt, and it gives people the feeling that even if they're not in control of the unfavorable situation, they're doing all they can, by god. :)
I think you are right on about the "sympathetic pressing of the elevator button" though; that seems to be a way of declaring that you have benign intentions.
People do strange things when they eat mushrooms.
I don't get it - what exactly does this guy do with the 2.2 kernel? Just bugfixes? How does he know he's not working hard to fix a bug that was fixed by someone who noticed it in 2.4 or 2.6? Not knocking the guy or anything, I'm just absolutely baffled as to what he does with the 2.2 kernel.
I personally like the ones with homoerotic overtones: man touch man perl man unzip man units man curl man flex man tcl man gawk man paste man mount Why do I have the sudden urge to write a program called "chowder"?
In other news, the lens was found approximately three miles away from a giant on all fours combing the ground with his hands.
Knuth was born in 1938, making him 65-66 years old, 72-73 when the planned release of Volume 5 comes around. It's going to be a tight squeeze no doubt, but it's not impossible; Knuth could pull a Chomsky and keep on writing books into his eighties.
The community can help already. Download the fasciles and comb them for errors, as is explicitly requested on Knuth's news page.
This is actually common practice for head-shavers. Bic once, then keep your melon smooth by applying an electric razor daily (since most folk of the head-shaving persuasion dislike hair length oscillations no matter how minor as well as the idea of straightrazor shaving daily). Does this turn them into Nazis? YOU MAKE THE CALL!
Sorry, got carried away there.
Celebrity endorsements! Thats just the ticket to get the arcade industry back! Anyone up for a game of "Danza Danza Revolution"?
Don't forget the extremely vague and universal symptoms listed in the advertisements:
If you've ever felt depressed, disappointed, been discouraged, or have in any way failed to any extent in any endeavor you have ever attempted, ask your doctor about Lobotomol.
True, but don't forget to correct for the "People Are Fucking Morons" factor.
Now going back to your first point, even if we have a NeuroPentium processor, we still need to do some serious non-intuitive engineering to create the base hardware that can intuitively interact with our world. And this issue does not even address the fact that so many business world applications (like accounting packages and tax software) represent fundamentally non-intuive problem domains.
What the 'NeuroPentium' would ideally do then is to assign things like accounting and tax functions (the number-crunching parts, at least; if you know any accountants you know that it can be a very creative business as well) to the regular style of computation, which is what you just did when you said "accounting and tax software is non-intuitive"! A processor modeled on the brain would look at that type of problem, say the same thing, and let a number-cruncher chew on it. And that says a lot about the ultimate aim of artificial intelligence: making a machine that amplifies our strengths yet has little or none of our faults.
However, by the same token the very systems which make us "intuitive" and pattern-oriented are subject to the laws of science which are grounded in logic, no?
I agree with you, but only temporarily - I think it's only a matter of time (more specifically, time to figure out exactly how we do this kind of thing)
"I Have No Morals Yet I Must Sue"?
Comcast has placed this bid in spite of the fact that the company's president, Brian Roberts, is 5'4", a good three inches shorter than the "You Must Be This Tall to Aquire" statue outside Disney headquarters.
That's one gigantic goddamn envelope.
Yeah, that's much worse than the paper version, where the programs run themselves if you press the "Go" button on the page with your finger.