Yeah I read that too! Isn't it incredible how FAST this spacecraft is? Apparently it took 3 days for the Apollo mission to get to the Moon. This spacecraft will pass the Moon after about 9 hours! Thats FAST!
I've taken a few basic classes on orbital mechanics and it takes an INCREDIBLE amount of energy to escape the earths gravitational pull. I'm wondering about the relationship between the amount of fuel required to increase the objects velocity. One would think that once you've reached escape velocity it gets easier... but people often neglect to think about the extra fuel that is required to provide that energy... LOL, the fuel has to carry itself up!
Will this save lives or cause death? I guess its a good idea *IF AND ONLY IF* they were used for very specific purposes such as "protecting" their borders. I would have to raise a moral flag, however, if and when robots are used for the offense. In any case any technology that "saves" lives is a good thing.
While I detest war I can say that it would be interesting to see robots fighting robots (as long as they didn't hurt people). LOL, maybe robot technology will advance far enough as to drive prices down to the "affordable" level by the average middle class Joe Blow.
First of all, it is probably morally wrong for students to have "other" people do their work for them. However, sometimes it really helps to have some "example" code from which to start learning. I'm torn between the two teaching methods but I believe that a good balance is necessary.
As an Electrical Engineer I was forced to learn to code (despite that fact that I really don't enjoy coding that much). I found that sometimes when a student jumps feet first into something they have a really steep learning curve. If they start with sample code and then get weaned off of it then that would be effective.
Ironically, "some" of those idiots were blamed for plagiarism! Oh how sweet justice is when students learn "Quality Control" through cheating.
On the flipside, I've seen arguments here that those students wont get anywhere in the workforce. I could imagine a scenario where individuals outsource their "personal" assignments (in the workforce) to India:) Hows that for Entrepreneurship? One can telecommute and then outsource all of his work to India....lets just hope those fools don't violate any NDAs!
I know I'm ranting but its my style.... I feel that I'm at least semi-on topic and that, at a minimum, made an attempt to say something interesting...
Nuclear Fusion is most certainly possible. However, in order for it to be useful (at least for power production purposes) the energy output must surpass the energy input. In the article it looks like (and I'm not sure if it is even true) the "ultrasonic" waves introduce enough energy into the liquid to separate molecules, which in turn fuse together and release energy.
So, the "cool" aspect of this technology is *not* that ultrasound can wrench molecules apart, but that the molecules release energy upon "fusing".
Regardless of however, "cool" this is, it is still quite impractical. Perhaps if the energy released was in the form of heat instead of "light" then a chain reaction could occur. We'll I just hope that humanity invests in the "basic" research necessary to create useful technologies from this. At a minimum, it is very interesting!
Uh, no. The point of the article is: "Interactive learning fails reading test." That is, the focus is on "interactive learning" and it - not the reading test.
Irrespective of how you choose to interpret what I wrote, my point was that "MY" experience with interactive learning software has led me to believe that the "study" presented on/. had some validity.
So, while you may be able to read I am sincerely doubting your ability to "think." If the "point" of the article as you so delicately put it was about literacy then why did the article discuss parents spending millions on educational computer games for their young, as well as the fact that the students could not remember the stories they just read? It looks to me like they were implying that the interactive nature of the software was too distracting. In fact, the title of the article is, "Interactive learning fails reading test." So, my friend, I think it is you who misunderstood the point of the article. They were not discussing literacy, which happens to be defined as, "the ability to read and write."
While you may be "literate" you have most certainly proven yourself to lack "taste" or as was demonstrated by your "foul" choice of words. While I dislike using such words I fear that you will not understand it any other way.
For the most part I believe the studies that were just published. I have tried many computer based classes and I did find myself distracted by the "media supplements" and "interactive" links, etc. On the other hand, I think that book learning also has its flaws.
Classical education theory suggests that people can be categorized by visual, aural, touch, smell, etc learning capacities. I found that a careful combination of each of the senses works for me.
Irrespective, I think that interactive learning is better than no learning;)
And finally, "studies" are oftentimes slanted in favor of those who are funding the research. That is, if the sponsors don't like the result they simply choose not to publish.
Matt Wong
To begin with, please forgive me if I tread on a topic that someone else has already started... I just don't have time to read ALL of the threads before making my own argument.
First and foremost: competition is necessary. It breeds new products and forces companies to be innovative and resourceful. It is a necessary evil that no one would rather deal with if they had the choice.
However, the path to success nearly always encompasses ingenuity, innovation, originality, etc. Is it really necessary to think in such a negative way that other companies are outdoing another?
Perhaps its time for business to look past such negative outlooks and focus on the positive. Innovation and creativity is necessary. If someone is a threat then it is because you aren't doing your job correctly to begin with.
So, Kudo's to competition because it forces companies with a lack of insight to stay on track. HOWEVER, it is (theoretically) complete possible for a business to run without giving any thought to "competition". Yes, it still exists and it is a factor, but rather than putting energy into analyzing the competition shift that into improving creativity....
What does the Slashdot community think of this? Perhaps some will say that it is unrealistic and too theoretical, but I am firm believer that negative thought processes breed sloth and positive ones synergize the world.
--Matthew Wong
P.S. I'm relatively new to Slashdot and am offended at some of the people's nastiness when it comes to posting. Is this considered normal etiquette here? Or are there really a bunch of lamos trying to use the message board to make up for a lack of friends?
Interestingly your idea to run computers / superconductors in really cold environments might run into problems. While it is really cold in Space there is also a lack of a thermally conductive medium. That means, an object that generates heat in space will continue to heat up since the heat has nowhere to dissipate to! So, in order to take advantage of the extreme cold one would have to find a way to transfer the heat into the environment.
Matthew Wong
It looks to me that the 33dB Noise Reduction Ratio (NRR) that they came up with is actually just a mean NRR. Higher and Lower frequencies get 40-55 dB reduction ratios. This, combined with the fact that the LRAD is capable of doing 150 dB Max at close distances then it is possible that foar earplugs are an effective deterrant. But hey, these guys aren't concerned about hearing loss are they? I mean.. they are firing grenade launchers from point blank!
I actually a bit curious about this LRAD. Is it similar to the directed energy beams that were discussed a few years back? You know, the ones that operate on the principle of firing TWO highly directed high frequency sound beams NEAR each other and using mathematics and physics to predict how the two beams will interact through interference and produce audible noise at controlled distances. Is the LRAD the same thing or is it just a directional loudspeaker?
Anyway, I think earplugs might be an effecitve countermeasure.. that or deaf pirates!
"All you lunar hoax conspiracy theorists out there can just consider this the remake, with 2005-class special effects."
I wonder exactly how much better the special effects will be! Are they using the old photographs? Or are they generating new ones? One question I have is just how "real" the experience really is!
With all of the data from Nasa's Rovers we should be able to get an IMAX 3D of the Martian Surface. Now that would be fun!
Pretty soon we'll all be talkikng about the Mars Hoax;)
I saw in some of the postings that people DID NOT like the idea of laptop raid. Well, I'm wondering WHY NOT? Any customer who is likely to care about RAID probably isn't the most mobile user (hence not caring quite as much about batterly life). But, I'm afraid of doing certain things on my laptop for fear of it crapping out or worse, getting stolen. For me DATA redundancy is a MUST.
Additionally, Intel's new chips are supposedly VERY power efficient. If they can make future laptops with RAID sans the power problems... great.
But the real issue is probably COST. If you don't know what RAID is you aren't going to buy it....and its not going to increase cost THAT MUCH. But for those of us who DO know what raid is and either want increased performance or reliability.... there is a market! I don't really like having limited options when I'm making a choice, so having the OPTION of RAID is exactly what I WANTED.
--Matt Wong
I applaud their efforts to increase human knowledge regarding SONAR technologies. There are quite a few potential benefits that may arise.
One would hope, however, that we don't start relying too much on SONAR becuase it appears to be of limited functionality, can potentially cause noise pollution, and even alter the migration patters of bats themselves;) Either that or maybe it would drive dogs and cats crazy.
Well, whatever the case, I'm quite curious to see how far they go. I mean really, the technology is only going to be good at things that reflect sound. Is it going to be good for people avoidance? Tree / shurb avoidance? Maybe.... but then again any addition information is better than none.. that is if it were suplimented with appropriate visual/tactile sensors, etc.
Yes, I've managed to do this to... right now I'm using MediaWiki. I found it to be a faster alternative to HTML and I can have friends / colleagues, etc help maintain it.
I just started using wiki's recently... but now I'm addicted... I use it for more than just bookmarks too.. such as my list of restaurant reviews.
Wow, open source search engines.
on
Lucene in Action
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Thanks! I was looking for a good book on Open Source search engines. While I have never heard of "Lucene" I will definitely be looking into it now. Its probably a good opportunity to learn all about Search Engine Heuristics, methods, etc...
Also, I agree with the author that bookmark functionality has gone the way of the dinosuars... with the exception of the "open all tabs" feature found in many browsers today... that is about the only one that I use often.
Im just wondering how the "search" functionality will actually play out in the future. Apple has "Spotlight" and Microsoft is supposedly incorperating magick folders or something like that into Vista. Can anyone tell me more about Lucene and how it differs from say Google or other search engines?
When I was first exposed to Open Source (perhpas FREE) software I thought that the business model was flawed. Yet, here i am today using TONS of OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE.
Enlightenment is realy cool... but its been BETA forever.
Looking at Mac OS X I think I see where the future lies. We need Open Source but we also need the resources of private industry to move things forward. Mac OS X is UNIX done right. Enlightenment, with all of its cool features, is still in my opinion unusable. Although I have not tried it lately - perhaps it has made leaps and bounds in improvements.
But this begs the question: what role should OSS play in today's world? What is the proper balance between free and pay? In the end, don't you get what you pay for?
Looking at the differences between a bird and an airplane one can see obvious benefits of each. What conventional aeronautics have not been able to acomplish is the agility and dexterity with wich birds can manuvere in flight. Birds also have an incredible ability to fly at slow speeds and even recover from dangerous situations. All of these qualities are what we NEED in our future aeronautical designs.
As a Private Pilot I was getting excited by the prospect of the Mohler Flying Car, or even one of those (relatively) cheap DIY helicopters. But there was always something in the back of my mind that said that aircraft NEED to be more like birds.
Admittedly, the technology ISN'T as impressive as one would imagine. BUT, I applaud any attempt at changing the way things are done. In fact, I read an article yesterday that claimed that Japan is doing experiementation with a supersonic (Concorde-like) aircraft! Lets see what the future holds: flying cars, supersonic flight for everyone, personal helicopters, more agile designs, deployable parachutes, better computer assisted flight (from GPS, ALS, to auto performance enhancements).....
Its about time someone in the field of aeronautics changed things....things have remained the same for WAY TOO LONG.
WHY IS IT THAT A 1940's ERA war plane can KICK my Cessna's Butt????????? THIS DOES NOT SEEM LIKE PROGRESS.
OK... so perusing some of the replies here I have to agree with those that think that Google is GOOD. Heck... if you've got the talent then you DESERVE to get paid well and work for an innovative company. Its not Google's fault that there are a lack of innovative competitors.
On a second and more interesting note, look at all the stuff Google has brought us. Yes, it might bring more ads to your doorstep (or browser or whatever), but that is the price you pay. (unlike Cable TV where you pay for the service and still have to watch commercials), Google gives us Google Earth, maps.google.com, an excellent search enginge, Picassa, etc....
I won't mention too much about what I think about Google Desktop Search though.... after it took snapshots of credit card numbers I reformatted my machine... so maybe they are partially evil.
Anyway, for the most part, I Like Google.....every company has its pros and its cons....What do you think?
While I'm on the subject and replying to my own post.... I might add that it would be fun for iRobot or Sony or somebody to include software with their robots that allows the USER to program a general layout of their house. The computer algorythm can worry about obstacle avoidance, but having a hard coded map would be VERY handy. I'd take the time to program my Roomba to know where all the walls are and do a good job cleaning my house... heck it'd be a lot easy than programming IBM Via Voice to help me with my college term papers (back in the day)..... I think I spent more time training it and fixing my computer than working on the paper!
Well, its just a thought.
It appears to me that robots in the home will most certainly be commonplace in the near future. Japan already has lots of research on how ot make robots move, look, and even act human. Despite such aesthetic devices, robots are already starting to invade our lives. Manufacturing facilities, automated landing systems in aircraft, room sweeping, room mopping, and now security systems. The cost of R&D is high which is what makes the $2600 security robot so expensive. But, much like the Aibo, the more people that purchase such devices they will inevitably become cheaper. With that said, I encourage anyone who can afford one to purchase one and help drive the price down. Heck.. if I had the money I might spring of one of those space trips offered by Virgin Galactic or even another country.
This is such an interesting discussion. Which CPU is better? Better is obviously in the eye of the behold as price, power, Mhz, and apparently performance per watt matter. I was at WWDC and played with the new MacTel boxes. Interestingly the single 3.6 Ghz pentiums appear to run faster than the dual 2.7 Ghz G5's.
OK... so I'm not going to go there... but Intel is apparently coming out with some interesting new hardware. I don't know everything about it.. but it appears that they will be chainge the x86 architecture altogether. So was Apples move speculative or desperate?
Another interesting thing as brough up by the author of the post to which I am replying.. liies in the fact that certain companies are inexorably tied to their hardware. Some institutions, for example, running Pro Tools may not be able to upgrade to the new hardware as their software will not be availible. This is speculative... but it is possible.
So I'd be interested in an arcitcle that clearly lays out the differences between the PowerPC and Intel architectures and maybe even one that examines Inte's new architecture as well.
The PowerPC is undoubtably an excellent platform....but there are other factors to be considered.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah I read that too! Isn't it incredible how FAST this spacecraft is? Apparently it took 3 days for the Apollo mission to get to the Moon. This spacecraft will pass the Moon after about 9 hours! Thats FAST!
I've taken a few basic classes on orbital mechanics and it takes an INCREDIBLE amount of energy to escape the earths gravitational pull. I'm wondering about the relationship between the amount of fuel required to increase the objects velocity. One would think that once you've reached escape velocity it gets easier... but people often neglect to think about the extra fuel that is required to provide that energy... LOL, the fuel has to carry itself up!
Matt Wong
www.themindofmatthew.com
Will this save lives or cause death? I guess its a good idea *IF AND ONLY IF* they were used for very specific purposes such as "protecting" their borders. I would have to raise a moral flag, however, if and when robots are used for the offense. In any case any technology that "saves" lives is a good thing.
While I detest war I can say that it would be interesting to see robots fighting robots (as long as they didn't hurt people). LOL, maybe robot technology will advance far enough as to drive prices down to the "affordable" level by the average middle class Joe Blow.
Matt Wong
www.themindofmatthew.com
I have a few thought on this:
:) Hows that for Entrepreneurship? One can telecommute and then outsource all of his work to India....lets just hope those fools don't violate any NDAs!
First of all, it is probably morally wrong for students to have "other" people do their work for them. However, sometimes it really helps to have some "example" code from which to start learning. I'm torn between the two teaching methods but I believe that a good balance is necessary.
As an Electrical Engineer I was forced to learn to code (despite that fact that I really don't enjoy coding that much). I found that sometimes when a student jumps feet first into something they have a really steep learning curve. If they start with sample code and then get weaned off of it then that would be effective.
Ironically, "some" of those idiots were blamed for plagiarism! Oh how sweet justice is when students learn "Quality Control" through cheating.
On the flipside, I've seen arguments here that those students wont get anywhere in the workforce. I could imagine a scenario where individuals outsource their "personal" assignments (in the workforce) to India
I know I'm ranting but its my style.... I feel that I'm at least semi-on topic and that, at a minimum, made an attempt to say something interesting...
Matt Wong www.themindofmatthew.com
It seems that Google is taking over the world... at least so far I like what they are doing. --Matt Wong
Nuclear Fusion is most certainly possible. However, in order for it to be useful (at least for power production purposes) the energy output must surpass the energy input. In the article it looks like (and I'm not sure if it is even true) the "ultrasonic" waves introduce enough energy into the liquid to separate molecules, which in turn fuse together and release energy.
So, the "cool" aspect of this technology is *not* that ultrasound can wrench molecules apart, but that the molecules release energy upon "fusing".
Regardless of however, "cool" this is, it is still quite impractical. Perhaps if the energy released was in the form of heat instead of "light" then a chain reaction could occur. We'll I just hope that humanity invests in the "basic" research necessary to create useful technologies from this. At a minimum, it is very interesting!
Matthew Wong.
Uh, no. The point of the article is: "Interactive learning fails reading test." That is, the focus is on "interactive learning" and it - not the reading test.
Irrespective of how you choose to interpret what I wrote, my point was that "MY" experience with interactive learning software has led me to believe that the "study" presented on /. had some validity.
So, while you may be able to read I am sincerely doubting your ability to "think." If the "point" of the article as you so delicately put it was about literacy then why did the article discuss parents spending millions on educational computer games for their young, as well as the fact that the students could not remember the stories they just read? It looks to me like they were implying that the interactive nature of the software was too distracting. In fact, the title of the article is, "Interactive learning fails reading test." So, my friend, I think it is you who misunderstood the point of the article. They were not discussing literacy, which happens to be defined as, "the ability to read and write."
While you may be "literate" you have most certainly proven yourself to lack "taste" or as was demonstrated by your "foul" choice of words. While I dislike using such words I fear that you will not understand it any other way.
Learn to fucking think.
Matt Wong
For the most part I believe the studies that were just published. I have tried many computer based classes and I did find myself distracted by the "media supplements" and "interactive" links, etc. On the other hand, I think that book learning also has its flaws.
;)
Classical education theory suggests that people can be categorized by visual, aural, touch, smell, etc learning capacities. I found that a careful combination of each of the senses works for me.
Irrespective, I think that interactive learning is better than no learning
And finally, "studies" are oftentimes slanted in favor of those who are funding the research. That is, if the sponsors don't like the result they simply choose not to publish. Matt Wong
To begin with, please forgive me if I tread on a topic that someone else has already started... I just don't have time to read ALL of the threads before making my own argument.
First and foremost: competition is necessary. It breeds new products and forces companies to be innovative and resourceful. It is a necessary evil that no one would rather deal with if they had the choice.
However, the path to success nearly always encompasses ingenuity, innovation, originality, etc. Is it really necessary to think in such a negative way that other companies are outdoing another?
Perhaps its time for business to look past such negative outlooks and focus on the positive. Innovation and creativity is necessary. If someone is a threat then it is because you aren't doing your job correctly to begin with.
So, Kudo's to competition because it forces companies with a lack of insight to stay on track. HOWEVER, it is (theoretically) complete possible for a business to run without giving any thought to "competition". Yes, it still exists and it is a factor, but rather than putting energy into analyzing the competition shift that into improving creativity....
What does the Slashdot community think of this? Perhaps some will say that it is unrealistic and too theoretical, but I am firm believer that negative thought processes breed sloth and positive ones synergize the world.
--Matthew Wong P.S. I'm relatively new to Slashdot and am offended at some of the people's nastiness when it comes to posting. Is this considered normal etiquette here? Or are there really a bunch of lamos trying to use the message board to make up for a lack of friends?
Interestingly your idea to run computers / superconductors in really cold environments might run into problems. While it is really cold in Space there is also a lack of a thermally conductive medium. That means, an object that generates heat in space will continue to heat up since the heat has nowhere to dissipate to! So, in order to take advantage of the extreme cold one would have to find a way to transfer the heat into the environment. Matthew Wong
Howard Leight Industries posts some of the Noise Reduction Ratios for their earplugs: http://www.howardleight.com/products/products2.asp ?id=4#
It looks to me that the 33dB Noise Reduction Ratio (NRR) that they came up with is actually just a mean NRR. Higher and Lower frequencies get 40-55 dB reduction ratios. This, combined with the fact that the LRAD is capable of doing 150 dB Max at close distances then it is possible that foar earplugs are an effective deterrant. But hey, these guys aren't concerned about hearing loss are they? I mean.. they are firing grenade launchers from point blank!
I actually a bit curious about this LRAD. Is it similar to the directed energy beams that were discussed a few years back? You know, the ones that operate on the principle of firing TWO highly directed high frequency sound beams NEAR each other and using mathematics and physics to predict how the two beams will interact through interference and produce audible noise at controlled distances. Is the LRAD the same thing or is it just a directional loudspeaker?
Anyway, I think earplugs might be an effecitve countermeasure.. that or deaf pirates!
--Matthew Wong
http://www.themindofmatthew.com/
Wow, this seems quite interesting.
;)
"All you lunar hoax conspiracy theorists out there can just consider this the remake, with 2005-class special effects."
I wonder exactly how much better the special effects will be! Are they using the old photographs? Or are they generating new ones? One question I have is just how "real" the experience really is!
With all of the data from Nasa's Rovers we should be able to get an IMAX 3D of the Martian Surface. Now that would be fun! Pretty soon we'll all be talkikng about the Mars Hoax
Matt Wong
I saw in some of the postings that people DID NOT like the idea of laptop raid. Well, I'm wondering WHY NOT? Any customer who is likely to care about RAID probably isn't the most mobile user (hence not caring quite as much about batterly life). But, I'm afraid of doing certain things on my laptop for fear of it crapping out or worse, getting stolen. For me DATA redundancy is a MUST.
Additionally, Intel's new chips are supposedly VERY power efficient. If they can make future laptops with RAID sans the power problems... great.
But the real issue is probably COST. If you don't know what RAID is you aren't going to buy it....and its not going to increase cost THAT MUCH. But for those of us who DO know what raid is and either want increased performance or reliability.... there is a market! I don't really like having limited options when I'm making a choice, so having the OPTION of RAID is exactly what I WANTED. --Matt Wong
Funny I was just thinking about this the other day! Wow, I'm getting all excited about LAPTOP RAID NOW.... matt wong
I applaud their efforts to increase human knowledge regarding SONAR technologies. There are quite a few potential benefits that may arise.
;) Either that or maybe it would drive dogs and cats crazy.
/tactile sensors, etc.
One would hope, however, that we don't start relying too much on SONAR becuase it appears to be of limited functionality, can potentially cause noise pollution, and even alter the migration patters of bats themselves
Well, whatever the case, I'm quite curious to see how far they go. I mean really, the technology is only going to be good at things that reflect sound. Is it going to be good for people avoidance? Tree / shurb avoidance? Maybe.... but then again any addition information is better than none.. that is if it were suplimented with appropriate visual
--Matt Wong
Yes, I've managed to do this to... right now I'm using MediaWiki. I found it to be a faster alternative to HTML and I can have friends / colleagues, etc help maintain it. I just started using wiki's recently... but now I'm addicted... I use it for more than just bookmarks too.. such as my list of restaurant reviews.
Thanks! I was looking for a good book on Open Source search engines. While I have never heard of "Lucene" I will definitely be looking into it now. Its probably a good opportunity to learn all about Search Engine Heuristics, methods, etc...
Also, I agree with the author that bookmark functionality has gone the way of the dinosuars... with the exception of the "open all tabs" feature found in many browsers today... that is about the only one that I use often.
Im just wondering how the "search" functionality will actually play out in the future. Apple has "Spotlight" and Microsoft is supposedly incorperating magick folders or something like that into Vista. Can anyone tell me more about Lucene and how it differs from say Google or other search engines?
Thanks,
keilinw.
When I was first exposed to Open Source (perhpas FREE) software I thought that the business model was flawed. Yet, here i am today using TONS of OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE.
Enlightenment is realy cool... but its been BETA forever.
Looking at Mac OS X I think I see where the future lies. We need Open Source but we also need the resources of private industry to move things forward. Mac OS X is UNIX done right. Enlightenment, with all of its cool features, is still in my opinion unusable. Although I have not tried it lately - perhaps it has made leaps and bounds in improvements.
But this begs the question: what role should OSS play in today's world? What is the proper balance between free and pay? In the end, don't you get what you pay for?
I was wondering what happened to Enlightenment!
Looking at the differences between a bird and an airplane one can see obvious benefits of each. What conventional aeronautics have not been able to acomplish is the agility and dexterity with wich birds can manuvere in flight. Birds also have an incredible ability to fly at slow speeds and even recover from dangerous situations. All of these qualities are what we NEED in our future aeronautical designs.
As a Private Pilot I was getting excited by the prospect of the Mohler Flying Car, or even one of those (relatively) cheap DIY helicopters. But there was always something in the back of my mind that said that aircraft NEED to be more like birds.
Admittedly, the technology ISN'T as impressive as one would imagine. BUT, I applaud any attempt at changing the way things are done. In fact, I read an article yesterday that claimed that Japan is doing experiementation with a supersonic (Concorde-like) aircraft! Lets see what the future holds: flying cars, supersonic flight for everyone, personal helicopters, more agile designs, deployable parachutes, better computer assisted flight (from GPS, ALS, to auto performance enhancements).....
Its about time someone in the field of aeronautics changed things....things have remained the same for WAY TOO LONG.
WHY IS IT THAT A 1940's ERA war plane can KICK my Cessna's Butt????????? THIS DOES NOT SEEM LIKE PROGRESS.
OK... so perusing some of the replies here I have to agree with those that think that Google is GOOD. Heck... if you've got the talent then you DESERVE to get paid well and work for an innovative company. Its not Google's fault that there are a lack of innovative competitors. On a second and more interesting note, look at all the stuff Google has brought us. Yes, it might bring more ads to your doorstep (or browser or whatever), but that is the price you pay. (unlike Cable TV where you pay for the service and still have to watch commercials), Google gives us Google Earth, maps.google.com, an excellent search enginge, Picassa, etc.... I won't mention too much about what I think about Google Desktop Search though.... after it took snapshots of credit card numbers I reformatted my machine... so maybe they are partially evil. Anyway, for the most part, I Like Google.....every company has its pros and its cons....What do you think?
While I'm on the subject and replying to my own post.... I might add that it would be fun for iRobot or Sony or somebody to include software with their robots that allows the USER to program a general layout of their house. The computer algorythm can worry about obstacle avoidance, but having a hard coded map would be VERY handy. I'd take the time to program my Roomba to know where all the walls are and do a good job cleaning my house... heck it'd be a lot easy than programming IBM Via Voice to help me with my college term papers (back in the day)..... I think I spent more time training it and fixing my computer than working on the paper! Well, its just a thought.
It appears to me that robots in the home will most certainly be commonplace in the near future. Japan already has lots of research on how ot make robots move, look, and even act human. Despite such aesthetic devices, robots are already starting to invade our lives. Manufacturing facilities, automated landing systems in aircraft, room sweeping, room mopping, and now security systems. The cost of R&D is high which is what makes the $2600 security robot so expensive. But, much like the Aibo, the more people that purchase such devices they will inevitably become cheaper. With that said, I encourage anyone who can afford one to purchase one and help drive the price down. Heck.. if I had the money I might spring of one of those space trips offered by Virgin Galactic or even another country.
Now... if they'd only build it into my Roomba or Scuba so it can scan the house while it cleans.....
This is such an interesting discussion. Which CPU is better? Better is obviously in the eye of the behold as price, power, Mhz, and apparently performance per watt matter. I was at WWDC and played with the new MacTel boxes. Interestingly the single 3.6 Ghz pentiums appear to run faster than the dual 2.7 Ghz G5's.
OK... so I'm not going to go there... but Intel is apparently coming out with some interesting new hardware. I don't know everything about it.. but it appears that they will be chainge the x86 architecture altogether. So was Apples move speculative or desperate?
Another interesting thing as brough up by the author of the post to which I am replying.. liies in the fact that certain companies are inexorably tied to their hardware. Some institutions, for example, running Pro Tools may not be able to upgrade to the new hardware as their software will not be availible. This is speculative... but it is possible.
So I'd be interested in an arcitcle that clearly lays out the differences between the PowerPC and Intel architectures and maybe even one that examines Inte's new architecture as well.
The PowerPC is undoubtably an excellent platform....but there are other factors to be considered.