This is exactly what the OLPC was made for - distribution in third world countries!
This is an insult to Australia and will punished by a good kicking in the butt. Be glad you didn't question the water rotation in the local toilets. The last time that happened the US embassy had to be evacuated.
Once you hand out a computer to everybody, you can expect them to use it. You can start sending assignments per email, or require the to do online research without having to first check if every time if all your pupils have access to a computer.
Mmmh looks like you guys are interpeting a lott of things into my post that I didn't actually intend to say. Let me clarify my statement for a last time because I don't really thinks we disagree that much/at all.
Somewhere up the tree AC said:
the moment you say "the science is settled", you set yourself up for disaster.
MightyMartian disagreed and claimed the example to be ancient and not very good and therefore dismissing the argument.
While I'm pretty sure we are going for a global disaster if we don't do anything against global warming and I do consider the data convincing and sound I don't think we should never accept any scientific theory as a final truth. Never questioning it again because the consensus says so. To illustrate the point I threw in some more recent examples that came to mind.
On the topic on hand I agree that it's time to end the discussion in the US (the rest of the world seems to have already accepted is as a fact for quite a while) and act accordingly. I was simply stating that outside of religion there should not be any final truths. Once you introduce final truths that may not be questioned into science you turn it into religion.
Of course it's tiring to disprove everybodies pet theory, especially if they simply ignored or skewed the existing data because it didn't fit. But I'm afraid this kind of discussion, as exhausting as it may be, is necessary for the advancement of science. The problem we run into these days is that legions zealots swamp the process.
You will need to practice to say the following phrase with a straight face: "Slashdot? That is necessary research and enables me to be up to date with the current issues on technology and the way it influences the high tech community."
I have to admit that miasma was more or less a placeholder for all the voodoo babble in the history of medicine and especially infections diseases. I probably should have used blood letting instead. Newtons (as I stated) still works in most, but not all circumstances, but was considered to be universal until relativity and quantum mechanics proved it not to be. Electrons are particles but at the same time waves (double slit experiment), which seriously transformed the previous concept of how one looks like. Though I'm not 100% up to date about the current quantum based models. And for Darwin, that was rather badly worded. I meant the concept people had before Darwin et al.
While I'm with you, that the theory itself is sound and has been proven numerous times, this particular study isn't really worth that much. It would be ok to base further studies on the trend it shows, but in order to be significant or to "prove" anything it would have needed a far larger and more diverse group of people (like in those studies you posted).
How about: If your immune system has nothing to do, it gets bored and will look for other things to fight. That does include triggering (sometimes sever) immune reactions for imaginary threats like pollen, cat hair or dust. Also a well trained immune system will be a lot better at fighting real threats, than one that was never really challenged.
Before I get flamed for the last example, let me clarify I meant the way people thought about it before, Darwin and others came up with an explanation and a sound theory. Some people didn't get that one either, so global warming is in good company.
Ether theory, Newtons Models (still working in most but not all scales), electrons are particles, origin of the species, miasma...
There are probably a couple more, but these are the ones that came to mind first. Science is and has always been evolving.
I totally agree that we are f*cking up earth big time and that it would really be a good idea to conserve energy, and stop burning up resources like there is no tomorrow. The data shows that we changed the atmosphere and it shows things are changing, but acting would be inconvenient and expensive (somewhat) so we ignore the problem.
On the other hand , dismissing outright proof because it doesn't fit your world view isn't such a new idea either.
There where a few good points in the article, but also some really whacky stuff. The customer representatives in the board of directors definitively falls in the later category. And in case of FB, who are the "customers" anyway - the data providers or the companies paying for ads?
This would be an interesting point for a privacy discussion and maybe some regulation. What is your data, who owns it and what can be done with it? Is it just another asset of the company that can be sold or shared at will (at least from the legal standpoint) or is it part of a "contract" (sort of) between user and company needed to provide a service. What happens if the company is sold, goes bankrupt or decides it no longer cares about playing nice?
In some countries (ie Europe especially Germany) the regulations are rather clear about most points though probably not all. The user owns his data and can demand a copy of all personal data and may request it to be deleted as well. There are a few exceptions and some room for improvement but basically this is the way I'd like it it to happen.
I provide temporary access to my data and ad viewing eyeballs in exchange for a service. If you don't provide this service anymore (or if I cease to want it) you loose any right to use it. Of course there may be some necessary delays (ie. data won't be deleted until all open payments are settled).
Access to data is a right "rented" with the provision of service. If the service is no longer provided or needed, any right to access or keep the data should be void.
SoundWave: Sound-based motion detection from Microsoft Research
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Not one to be outdone by Disney’s any-surface touch interface, Microsoft Research, working with the University of Washington, has developed a Kinect-like system that uses your computer’s built-in microphone and speakers to provide object detection and gesture recognition, much in the same way that a submarine uses sonar.
Called SoundWave, the new technology uses the Doppler effect to detect any movements and gestures in the proximity of a computer. The Doppler effect, if you remember high school physics, is where the frequency of a sound alters depending on your distance from it — the Doppler effect describes the change of a police siren’s pitch as it comes towards you and then recedes into the distance. In the case of SoundWave, your computer’s built-in speaker is used to emit ultrasonic (18-22KHz) sound waves, which change frequency depending on where your hand (or body) is in relation to the computer. This change in frequency is measured by your computer’s built-in microphone, and then some fairly complex software works out your motion/gesture.
Now, the obvious advantage of SoundWave over a product like Kinect is that it uses existing, commodity hardware; it could effectively equip every modern laptop with a gesture-sensing interface. The flip side, though, is that SoundWave, with a single sound source and microphone, isn’t going to allow for the same kind of accurate, 3D sensing that Kinect, Sony Move, or Wii Motion can provide with cameras and stereo IR sensors.
Microsoft SoundWave, measuring the Doppler effect of a moving handWatching the SoundWave video though (embedded below), I am surprised at what has already been achieved with a very simple hardware setup. The most obvious example is a laptop that automatically locks when you move away from it, and unlocks when you return — but it seems that the software is already advanced enough to detect up/down and left/right swipes of the hand. The system’s accuracy, according to the research paper, is between 90 and 100%, even in noisy environments. In one example, some fairly complex hand gestures are used to control the rotation and descending of Tetris blocks. If you added another ultrasonic sound source, and a few more microphones (many laptops already have microphone arrays anyway), SoundWave could probably replicate Kinect very well.
The video also makes clear, however, that waving your hands around — when the keyboard is right there — is a little bit foolish. Still, SoundWave is a freebie — it doesn’t interfere with any other sounds played by the computer (you can listen to music while SoundWave is active), and there’s no reason why laptops shouldn’t come with SoundWave preinstalled. I doubt it will ever reach the accuracy or resolution of camera-based solutions, though, and in all likelihood it won’t be long until we see laptops and smartphones with Kinect built in, anyway. Still, who knows — maybe SoundWave could provide a cheaper option for developing countries, or perhaps it could simply augment Kinect to provide greater accuracy over a wider range of motions/gestures.
Lab created diamonds (at least small ones) are not that expensive. If you need an example check for diamond (dust, but still) covered blades (for stone cutting) in your local hardware store. Artificial diamonds are used in thousands of machines for very different tasks already. So that wont be a big deal
Community leaders may themselves be able to inspire sense of personal responsibility in a community
Like Oprah and immunization?
What kind of leaders do you have in mind? Politicians? Priests? I'm afraid the people most folks look up to for inspiration these days are talk show hosts, actors, singers and other celebrities. I have a hard time believing in "the plain sense of reason" in most people. This does in fact include myself at times. I knew it was wrong and maybe dangerous but still used the phone and performed other even more unsafe driving activities.
Still see regulations not as a substitute for common sense but as an incentive that raises the bar for unsafe behavior. Something like fear of causing accident plus fear of getting caught equals maybe the call isn't that important.
This should already be included with every car. Instead of being bored you could get your daily MMORP quest done while you commute. Or finally eating your sandwich in style. Or chopping vegetables or getting chopped in two yourself due a collision... The possibilities are endless.
Slashdot Mirror
This is exactly what the OLPC was made for - distribution in third world countries!
This is an insult to Australia and will punished by a good kicking in the butt. Be glad you didn't question the water rotation in the local toilets. The last time that happened the US embassy had to be evacuated.
those were the good old days when we still though gamma rays gave you super powers instead of cancer
Once you hand out a computer to everybody, you can expect them to use it. You can start sending assignments per email, or require the to do online research without having to first check if every time if all your pupils have access to a computer.
The price is probably not just the hardware but also some sort of supporting infrastructure as well.
... and irradiated spiders that bite school children who become photographers
Somewhere up the tree AC said:
the moment you say "the science is settled", you set yourself up for disaster.
MightyMartian disagreed and claimed the example to be ancient and not very good and therefore dismissing the argument.
While I'm pretty sure we are going for a global disaster if we don't do anything against global warming and I do consider the data convincing and sound I don't think we should never accept any scientific theory as a final truth. Never questioning it again because the consensus says so. To illustrate the point I threw in some more recent examples that came to mind.
On the topic on hand I agree that it's time to end the discussion in the US (the rest of the world seems to have already accepted is as a fact for quite a while) and act accordingly. I was simply stating that outside of religion there should not be any final truths. Once you introduce final truths that may not be questioned into science you turn it into religion.
Of course it's tiring to disprove everybodies pet theory, especially if they simply ignored or skewed the existing data because it didn't fit. But I'm afraid this kind of discussion, as exhausting as it may be, is necessary for the advancement of science. The problem we run into these days is that legions zealots swamp the process.
And something akin to an app store to purchase more software and books that are not included in the standard issue.
You will need to practice to say the following phrase with a straight face: "Slashdot? That is necessary research and enables me to be up to date with the current issues on technology and the way it influences the high tech community."
I have to admit that miasma was more or less a placeholder for all the voodoo babble in the history of medicine and especially infections diseases. I probably should have used blood letting instead. Newtons (as I stated) still works in most, but not all circumstances, but was considered to be universal until relativity and quantum mechanics proved it not to be. Electrons are particles but at the same time waves (double slit experiment), which seriously transformed the previous concept of how one looks like. Though I'm not 100% up to date about the current quantum based models. And for Darwin, that was rather badly worded. I meant the concept people had before Darwin et al.
very nice analogy.
While I'm with you, that the theory itself is sound and has been proven numerous times, this particular study isn't really worth that much. It would be ok to base further studies on the trend it shows, but in order to be significant or to "prove" anything it would have needed a far larger and more diverse group of people (like in those studies you posted).
How about: If your immune system has nothing to do, it gets bored and will look for other things to fight. That does include triggering (sometimes sever) immune reactions for imaginary threats like pollen, cat hair or dust. Also a well trained immune system will be a lot better at fighting real threats, than one that was never really challenged.
My guess is that conservatism is about business as usual, keep things the way they are, avoid change and not rocking the boat.
Before I get flamed for the last example, let me clarify I meant the way people thought about it before, Darwin and others came up with an explanation and a sound theory. Some people didn't get that one either, so global warming is in good company.
Ether theory, Newtons Models (still working in most but not all scales), electrons are particles, origin of the species, miasma ...
There are probably a couple more, but these are the ones that came to mind first. Science is and has always been evolving.
I totally agree that we are f*cking up earth big time and that it would really be a good idea to conserve energy, and stop burning up resources like there is no tomorrow. The data shows that we changed the atmosphere and it shows things are changing, but acting would be inconvenient and expensive (somewhat) so we ignore the problem.
On the other hand , dismissing outright proof because it doesn't fit your world view isn't such a new idea either.
There where a few good points in the article, but also some really whacky stuff. The customer representatives in the board of directors definitively falls in the later category. And in case of FB, who are the "customers" anyway - the data providers or the companies paying for ads?
No need to worry, there are plenty of alternative ways to keep yourself from working. And if everything else fails, there is still solitaire.
This would be an interesting point for a privacy discussion and maybe some regulation. What is your data, who owns it and what can be done with it? Is it just another asset of the company that can be sold or shared at will (at least from the legal standpoint) or is it part of a "contract" (sort of) between user and company needed to provide a service. What happens if the company is sold, goes bankrupt or decides it no longer cares about playing nice?
In some countries (ie Europe especially Germany) the regulations are rather clear about most points though probably not all. The user owns his data and can demand a copy of all personal data and may request it to be deleted as well. There are a few exceptions and some room for improvement but basically this is the way I'd like it it to happen.
I provide temporary access to my data and ad viewing eyeballs in exchange for a service. If you don't provide this service anymore (or if I cease to want it) you loose any right to use it. Of course there may be some necessary delays (ie. data won't be deleted until all open payments are settled).
Access to data is a right "rented" with the provision of service. If the service is no longer provided or needed, any right to access or keep the data should be void.
My proofreading just reached a new low. Please ignore any "they"s in the parent. You may also take them to your own recycling post.
Haven't seen that many century old bat-tops lately, so they probably yes.
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/128735-microsoft-creates-kinect-like-system-using-your-laptops-built-in-speaker-microphone
Microsoft creates Kinect-like system using your laptop’s built-in speaker & microphone
By Sebastian Anthony on May 7, 2012 at 9:02 am
SoundWave: Sound-based motion detection from Microsoft Research
Share This article
Not one to be outdone by Disney’s any-surface touch interface, Microsoft Research, working with the University of Washington, has developed a Kinect-like system that uses your computer’s built-in microphone and speakers to provide object detection and gesture recognition, much in the same way that a submarine uses sonar.
Called SoundWave, the new technology uses the Doppler effect to detect any movements and gestures in the proximity of a computer. The Doppler effect, if you remember high school physics, is where the frequency of a sound alters depending on your distance from it — the Doppler effect describes the change of a police siren’s pitch as it comes towards you and then recedes into the distance. In the case of SoundWave, your computer’s built-in speaker is used to emit ultrasonic (18-22KHz) sound waves, which change frequency depending on where your hand (or body) is in relation to the computer. This change in frequency is measured by your computer’s built-in microphone, and then some fairly complex software works out your motion/gesture.
Now, the obvious advantage of SoundWave over a product like Kinect is that it uses existing, commodity hardware; it could effectively equip every modern laptop with a gesture-sensing interface. The flip side, though, is that SoundWave, with a single sound source and microphone, isn’t going to allow for the same kind of accurate, 3D sensing that Kinect, Sony Move, or Wii Motion can provide with cameras and stereo IR sensors.
Microsoft SoundWave, measuring the Doppler effect of a moving handWatching the SoundWave video though (embedded below), I am surprised at what has already been achieved with a very simple hardware setup. The most obvious example is a laptop that automatically locks when you move away from it, and unlocks when you return — but it seems that the software is already advanced enough to detect up/down and left/right swipes of the hand. The system’s accuracy, according to the research paper, is between 90 and 100%, even in noisy environments. In one example, some fairly complex hand gestures are used to control the rotation and descending of Tetris blocks. If you added another ultrasonic sound source, and a few more microphones (many laptops already have microphone arrays anyway), SoundWave could probably replicate Kinect very well.
The video also makes clear, however, that waving your hands around — when the keyboard is right there — is a little bit foolish. Still, SoundWave is a freebie — it doesn’t interfere with any other sounds played by the computer (you can listen to music while SoundWave is active), and there’s no reason why laptops shouldn’t come with SoundWave preinstalled. I doubt it will ever reach the accuracy or resolution of camera-based solutions, though, and in all likelihood it won’t be long until we see laptops and smartphones with Kinect built in, anyway. Still, who knows — maybe SoundWave could provide a cheaper option for developing countries, or perhaps it could simply augment Kinect to provide greater accuracy over a wider range of motions/gestures.
Looks like not all men are created equal...
Lab created diamonds (at least small ones) are not that expensive. If you need an example check for diamond (dust, but still) covered blades (for stone cutting) in your local hardware store. Artificial diamonds are used in thousands of machines for very different tasks already. So that wont be a big deal
Community leaders may themselves be able to inspire sense of personal responsibility in a community
Like Oprah and immunization?
What kind of leaders do you have in mind? Politicians? Priests? I'm afraid the people most folks look up to for inspiration these days are talk show hosts, actors, singers and other celebrities. I have a hard time believing in "the plain sense of reason" in most people. This does in fact include myself at times. I knew it was wrong and maybe dangerous but still used the phone and performed other even more unsafe driving activities.
Still see regulations not as a substitute for common sense but as an incentive that raises the bar for unsafe behavior. Something like fear of causing accident plus fear of getting caught equals maybe the call isn't that important.
This should already be included with every car. Instead of being bored you could get your daily MMORP quest done while you commute. Or finally eating your sandwich in style. Or chopping vegetables or getting chopped in two yourself due a collision... The possibilities are endless.