And it has fans to make it fly too? I saw this sort of flying toasting device depicted in a screen saver years ago.
Not to take away any credit from Berkeley Systems and After Dark, but the flying toasters thing originally came from Jefferson Airplane's 30 Seconds Over Winterland album cover.
We now return you to your originally scheduled thread, already in progress.
Brilliant -- all we have to do now is get computers to think and we'll be all set.
I'm not gonna get worked up or even mildly excited about stuff like this until it's a little closer to reality - like 20 years out. There's a big difference between (quoting from the Economist article) Some products already capture the spirit of sentient computing. When the makers of mobile phones first put the mouthpiece on a flip-up cover, users had to open the handset and irritatingly press a button to answer a call. It did not take long for manufacturers to add a sensor so that opening the flip-up cover answered a call and closing the cover ended it.
and
... instead of having to turn the television on, the TV will know what you want by combining an understanding of what you say, your expression, your gestures and even how you walk.
Yeah, this is supercool, and I'd love to have some, but I'm not holding my breath and I certainly don't think it's "likely to be everywhere within five years". If you want to consider computers to be conscious, it's going to take a lot more than motion sensors and cell phones that can tell when you've left your desk.
Using artificial intelligence as an analogue, we have a long time to wait indeed. AI has been promising us for what - 20 years now? - that this kind of stuff was right around the corner, and all we have to show for it is some expert systems and computers that can play chess really well. We can't even get something to pass the Turing test (flawed at that test may be).
Yeah, I know the article isn't about "sentient" technology as much as "ubiquitous" computing, but the author didn't seem to know that. It still isn't going to happen soon. Maybe my kids will have it, though.
Basically it comes down to wether or not you want what you are writing to be understood by the vast majority of the people who are reading it. You can dance around rules, style, and interpretation all day, but if in the end only half of your audience easily understood what you meant to convey, you failed in your job as a writer.
You're right, but the problem is that the original construction "not inexpensive" is not only a standard one, it is, in fact, clearly recognizable as understatement by any reader at more than a 10th grade level.
It's simple. It's a way of saying "expensive" with a bit of subtlety, while also inferring that, while it's not cheap, it's not necessarily overpriced either.
I do hope you're kidding. Folks like Kenny G and David Sanborn represent all that's wrong with modern music - mediocre glop tuned for "smoothness" and a generic, homogenized sound. Just the thing for background music in your dentist's office.
You might as well listen to Chuck Mangione - I hear his gig at Mega Lo Mart is gonna end soon.
If these lamers are the future of jazz, I'll keep listening to my old records, thank you very much. Or maybe just shoot myself.
Wow, this is a great thread. I'm learning a lot here too...
I me-too with a lot of the recommendations here, but nobody seems to have mentioned these yet:
Ray Charles: You may think of him as mainly an R&B or blues artist, but some of his stuff crosses over into jazz. Check out Blues + Jazz (2 CD set) or Ingredients In a Recipe For Soul (released on a single CD with Have a Smile With Me). For that matter, check out any Ray Charles at all.
Dave Brubeck: Lots of folks have mentioned Time Out, but also have a listen to The Dave Brubeck Quartet at Carnegie Hall, a 2-CD set from 1963 - it cooks. On the second disc they get into some of their more esoteric stuff in weird time signatures like 11/4 and 9/8. Yes, Paul Desmond was a genius.
Frank Sinatra: Aside from the vast number of reasons to listen to Frank (he's Frank Fuckin' Sinatra, for crissake), he worked with tight bands and brilliant arrangers. It Might As Well Be Swing was recorded with Count Basie and orchestra and arranged by Quincy Jones, and has some of the best pop tunes of all time ('best' being defined as 'perfect arrangement, no imperfections whatever, shivers go up the spine'). 'Fly Me To the Moon', 'I Can't Stop Loving You', and 'The Best Is Yet To Come' fall into this category (at least in my not-very-humble opinion).
The thing that blows me away it that this album was recorded in just a few days (the liner notes talk about 3 or 4 3-hour sessions), with just a few days to work out the arrangements. Frank liked to sing live with the band, as opposed to doing overdubs in the booth.
Also: if you haven't before, check out James Brown. Not only is he the Hardest Working Man In Show Business, he had the tightest band in show business. Again, he's more R&B and not really jazz, but he had a jazz sound, and Maceo Parker is a saxophone god.
Rules for crappy movies (slightly off topic)
on
Remember The Wizard?
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Why is it that most... ok, ALL, video game- based movies are bad?
See, there're rules for these things:
* Movies based on video games will suck. * Movies based on Saturday Night Live characters or skits will suck. * Remakes of classic movies will suck, but lots of people will go to see them anyway because they don't remember the originals. * Sequels to movies where a majority of the original characters do not return will suck. * If these characters are not played by the original actors, the movie will suck.
It's not the filmmakers' fault, those are just the rules. They look up the type of movie thay want to make. If it's there, the suck flag gets set.
On Topic: If you want a serious answer, I think it's because unless you use animation, you can't reproduce the action of the game, so you have to rely on making it a conventional action movie. Since it's going to be nothing like the game, and since the plot of the game will be much less interesting by itself, it will, by necessity, suck.
So, it says on the Realdoll site that you can hook up various sound files to each "erogenous zone". That's cool.
You know, I have a lot of sound clips I've gathered over the years. Imagine mapping a Three Stooges clip ("Woop-woop-woop") to the left nipple, a Homer Simpson "D'oh!" to the right, "Hey Rocky - watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat" to the ass, and maybe the Jeopardy theme or "Heeeeeeeereeeee's Johnny" to the pussy. Combine that with vigorous bed shaking and wall banging, along with your own screams and grunts, and you can have some very confused neighbors.
That was not at all evident from his comment. Using a scarce resource for commercial purposes is no great sin; radio and TV stations do it all the time. Yes, those are licensed spectrums, but the point is the same. (There are many problems with the way the radio/TV bands are allocated and managed, but that's a very different, and more valid, bitch.)
Besides, considering how few pay phones still exist these days, and the relatively short range of 802.11, and the fact that there are a bunch of channels, the problem is not going to be too enourmous. Yet.
We may not like it very much, but it's their infrastructure, and they can do a lot of what they want with it. Yeah, it sucks, but so do a lot of things.
From the EULA: ... Except as otherwise expressly set forth herein, You may not (and shall not allow any member of Your Household or any other Third Party to) (i) remove any product identification or other notices...
What disturbs me is the anti-trust odor of The Phone Co. limiting access to only their customers
Yeah, really. Just like the way they force you to sign up as a customer in order to use their phone service. How completely unfair. Goddamit! To exclude everyone else appears to be a coercive ploy to get people to drop their ISP and switch to Verizon.
You betcha. I'm gonna drop my ISP and instead use my laptop from a piss-smelling phone booth whenever I want to check my mail.
Of course, that would be appropriate for reading Slashdot.
Slashdot Mirror
And it has fans to make it fly too? I saw this sort of flying toasting device depicted in a screen saver years ago.
Not to take away any credit from Berkeley Systems and After Dark, but the flying toasters thing originally came from Jefferson Airplane's 30 Seconds Over Winterland album cover.
We now return you to your originally scheduled thread, already in progress.
Brilliant -- all we have to do now is get computers to think and we'll be all set.
... instead of having to turn the television on, the TV will know what you want by combining an understanding of what you say, your expression, your gestures and even how you walk.
I'm not gonna get worked up or even mildly excited about stuff like this until it's a little closer to reality - like 20 years out. There's a big difference between (quoting from the Economist article)
Some products already capture the spirit of sentient computing. When the makers of mobile phones first put the mouthpiece on a flip-up cover, users had to open the handset and irritatingly press a button to answer a call. It did not take long for manufacturers to add a sensor so that opening the flip-up cover answered a call and closing the cover ended it.
and
Yeah, this is supercool, and I'd love to have some, but I'm not holding my breath and I certainly don't think it's "likely to be everywhere within five years". If you want to consider computers to be conscious, it's going to take a lot more than motion sensors and cell phones that can tell when you've left your desk.
Using artificial intelligence as an analogue, we have a long time to wait indeed. AI has been promising us for what - 20 years now? - that this kind of stuff was right around the corner, and all we have to show for it is some expert systems and computers that can play chess really well. We can't even get something to pass the Turing test (flawed at that test may be).
Yeah, I know the article isn't about "sentient" technology as much as "ubiquitous" computing, but the author didn't seem to know that. It still isn't going to happen soon. Maybe my kids will have it, though.
Basically it comes down to wether or not you want what you are writing to be understood by the vast majority of the people who are reading it. You can dance around rules, style, and interpretation all day, but if in the end only half of your audience easily understood what you meant to convey, you failed in your job as a writer.
You're right, but the problem is that the original construction "not inexpensive" is not only a standard one, it is, in fact, clearly recognizable as understatement by any reader at more than a 10th grade level.
It's simple. It's a way of saying "expensive" with a bit of subtlety, while also inferring that, while it's not cheap, it's not necessarily overpriced either.
not-inexpensive = not-in-unaffordable, and for now not-unimpractical to even consider using just to record TV shows.
George Bush, ladies and gentlemen. Let's have a hand for them both. George Bush.
I do hope you're kidding. Folks like Kenny G and David Sanborn represent all that's wrong with modern music - mediocre glop tuned for "smoothness" and a generic, homogenized sound. Just the thing for background music in your dentist's office.
You might as well listen to Chuck Mangione - I hear his gig at Mega Lo Mart is gonna end soon.
If these lamers are the future of jazz, I'll keep listening to my old records, thank you very much. Or maybe just shoot myself.
Wow, this is a great thread. I'm learning a lot here too...
I me-too with a lot of the recommendations here, but nobody seems to have mentioned these yet:
Ray Charles: You may think of him as mainly an R&B or blues artist, but some of his stuff crosses over into jazz. Check out Blues + Jazz (2 CD set) or Ingredients In a Recipe For Soul (released on a single CD with Have a Smile With Me). For that matter, check out any Ray Charles at all.
Dave Brubeck: Lots of folks have mentioned Time Out, but also have a listen to The Dave Brubeck Quartet at Carnegie Hall, a 2-CD set from 1963 - it cooks. On the second disc they get into some of their more esoteric stuff in weird time signatures like 11/4 and 9/8. Yes, Paul Desmond was a genius.
Frank Sinatra: Aside from the vast number of reasons to listen to Frank (he's Frank Fuckin' Sinatra, for crissake), he worked with tight bands and brilliant arrangers. It Might As Well Be Swing was recorded with Count Basie and orchestra and arranged by Quincy Jones, and has some of the best pop tunes of all time ('best' being defined as 'perfect arrangement, no imperfections whatever, shivers go up the spine'). 'Fly Me To the Moon', 'I Can't Stop Loving You', and 'The Best Is Yet To Come' fall into this category (at least in my not-very-humble opinion).
The thing that blows me away it that this album was recorded in just a few days (the liner notes talk about 3 or 4 3-hour sessions), with just a few days to work out the arrangements. Frank liked to sing live with the band, as opposed to doing overdubs in the booth.
Also: if you haven't before, check out James Brown. Not only is he the Hardest Working Man In Show Business, he had the tightest band in show business. Again, he's more R&B and not really jazz, but he had a jazz sound, and Maceo Parker is a saxophone god.
Why is it that most... ok, ALL, video game- based movies are bad?
See, there're rules for these things:
* Movies based on video games will suck.
* Movies based on Saturday Night Live characters or skits will suck.
* Remakes of classic movies will suck, but lots of people will go to see them anyway because they don't remember the originals.
* Sequels to movies where a majority of the original characters do not return will suck.
* If these characters are not played by the original actors, the movie will suck.
It's not the filmmakers' fault, those are just the rules. They look up the type of movie thay want to make. If it's there, the suck flag gets set.
On Topic:
If you want a serious answer, I think it's because unless you use animation, you can't reproduce the action of the game, so you have to rely on making it a conventional action movie. Since it's going to be nothing like the game, and since the plot of the game will be much less interesting by itself, it will, by necessity, suck.
So, it says on the Realdoll site that you can hook up various sound files to each "erogenous zone". That's cool.
You know, I have a lot of sound clips I've gathered over the years. Imagine mapping a Three Stooges clip ("Woop-woop-woop") to the left nipple, a Homer Simpson "D'oh!" to the right, "Hey Rocky - watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat" to the ass, and maybe the Jeopardy theme or "Heeeeeeeereeeee's Johnny" to the pussy. Combine that with vigorous bed shaking and wall banging, along with your own screams and grunts, and you can have some very confused neighbors.
That was not at all evident from his comment. Using a scarce resource for commercial purposes is no great sin; radio and TV stations do it all the time. Yes, those are licensed spectrums, but the point is the same. (There are many problems with the way the radio/TV bands are allocated and managed, but that's a very different, and more valid, bitch.)
Besides, considering how few pay phones still exist these days, and the relatively short range of 802.11, and the fact that there are a bunch of channels, the problem is not going to be too enourmous. Yet.
We may not like it very much, but it's their infrastructure, and they can do a lot of what they want with it. Yeah, it sucks, but so do a lot of things.
Like the previous poster said, you would more properly use a colon. The better way to write the original subject would be
"Is Data Mining, For the Purposes of Product Pricing, Illegal?"
which does not make for a snappy headline. I believe
"Is Data Mining, For Product Pricing, Illegal?"
would also be correct.
I'd like to see more semicolons, myself, but nobody really knows how to use them.
You're welcome.
Another way to put it would be "Is Data Mining for Product Pricing Illegal?".
Or even "Is it Legal To Data-Mine Pricing Info?"
From the EULA:
... Except as otherwise expressly set forth herein, You may not (and shall not allow any member of Your Household or any other Third Party to) (i) remove any product identification or other notices...
AhhahHAHHAHHAH!!!!!
Yeah. Right. They can blow me.
What disturbs me is the anti-trust odor of The Phone Co. limiting access to only their customers
Yeah, really. Just like the way they force you to sign up as a customer in order to use their phone service. How completely unfair. Goddamit!
To exclude everyone else appears to be a coercive ploy to get people to drop their ISP and switch to Verizon.
You betcha. I'm gonna drop my ISP and instead use my laptop from a piss-smelling phone booth whenever I want to check my mail.
Of course, that would be appropriate for reading Slashdot.