Presumably they want to research how to trick people into providing markup/classification (that current 'AI' with a lack of reading comprehension/natural language competence (ever come across a decent 'automagic' translation?) fails to deliver) and sell the results for corporations to use. Seen this way, it is a cornerstone to the advancement of wealth creation, adding an exciting new semantic dimension to 'Rich Web Clients' (of Spivack).
There has to be a risk margin. I was just surpised how large it was.
More like this:
Do some market research to check how many 'early adopters' would bear how much. Fix price accordingly.
Do this for 'early majority' etc. as well and reduce price stepwise to maximise profits.
For the technical side: Check out the threshold for consumers to get frustrated and adjust specs just above.
My original guess, which this reinforces, was that apple took a huge gamble on the technology. Craploads could have gone wrong. The screens might have scratched to easily, the batteries might have died prematurely, the OS might have blue screened. . So many untested things you can't really adequately Q/A before the roll out.
So, after all, it looks like NASA gambles quite well.
Quote: "Mueller, an associate professor of computer science, has built a supercomputing cluster capable of both high-performance computing and running the latest in computer gaming. His cluster of eight PS3 machines - the first such academic cluster in the world - packs the power of a small supercomputer, but at a total cost of about $5,000, it costs less than some desktop computers that have only a fraction of the computing power.
...
Mueller estimates that with approximately 10,000 PS3 machines anyone could create the fastest computer in the world - albeit with limited single-precision capabilities and networking constraints."
We are not "afraid", we are cautious and -- unlike the Burmese -- we are far more trustful of our government. And for good reasons...
Caution seems to be indeed in place...
"America's global image has again slipped and support for the war on terrorism has declined even among close US allies like Japan. The war in Iraq is a continuing drag on opinions of the United States, not only in predominantly Muslim countries but in Europe and Asia as well. And despite growing concern over Iran's nuclear ambitions, the US presence in Iraq is cited at least as often as Iran - and in many countries much more often - as a danger to world peace." ( CSM, quoting a PEW study).
Whether one should trust in a government creating this type of image is questionable, at best.
Earlier 'research' was conducted by a Rick Nevin. This 'scientist' also stated:
"Rick Nevin examined the association between blood lead levels in U.S. children and IQ changes over several decades. He concluded that "long-term trends in population exposure to gasoline lead were... remarkably consistent with subsequent changes in violent crime and unwed pregnancy," and that paint and gasoline lead levels correlated with changes in murder rates. Improvements in children's IQ scores over several decades, as measured by the Cognitive Abilities Test, also showed a strong correlation wi ith declining blood lead levels."
From TFA: "This kind of information paints a picture of what a person is thinking or doing."... "In practical terms, Jaiku's mobile application allows users to broadcast not only their whereabouts, but how the phone is being used, even what kind of music it is playing.... "
It has leaked that there are plans to make the use of the service mandatory for US-inhabitants.
this will become a real pain when the Vista upgrade comes
Now do not complain; it is a big move from the necessity to reboot ever so often that you probably were accustomed to in former times, but still gives the cosy feeling of 'Déjà Vu', thus creating an exciting product experience.
... shortly later this plane came whipping past at what seemed like touching distance. Now that was clearly not a close call, but if the pilot had not talked about it we'd probably have thought it was.
Because the pilot cared to talk about it, that was clearly a close call.
I just cannot imagine extra terrestrials being willing to put up with the multi-year latency required to post and retrieve photos from an earth-based server.
If 'insightful' one would not claim to be 'atheist', but agnostic, quote: "An atheist, like a Christian, holds that we can know whether or not there is a God. The Christian holds that we can know there is a God; the atheist, that we can know there is not. The Agnostic suspends judgment, saying that there are not sufficient grounds either for affirmation or for denial. At the same time, an Agnostic may hold that the existence of God, though not impossible, is very improbable; he may even hold it so improbable that it is not worth considering in practice." (Russell)
FYI: "A writer who seems to have fallen into obscurity these days is Henry Kuttner. He died young and his reputation has been eclipsed by the writers who came after him. But both on his own and in collaboration with his wife C. L. Moore he produced some of the funniest stories I have ever read. Some have been collected -- though long out of print Robots Have No Tails occasionally surfaces in second hand bookshops. Make it your business to seek it out. It contains all the stories about Galloway Gallagher, a man whose subconscious is a brilliant scientist. When he is sober he is just an ordinary person, but when roaring drunk his subconscious takes over and makes the most incredible inventions. The stories concern the efforts of a hungover and very repentant Gallagher trying to figure out just what he's built this time. Why, for example, could he possibly have built a robot with a transparent body? And having done that, why did he make it so vain that all it wants to do is stand in front of a mirror watching its cogs go round? To find the answer to that conundrum, read The Proud Robot." (c.f)
It is different views of the same thing. Corporate entities (e.g. M$) put the (marketed) emphasis on 'trust' while those concerned with freedom (e.g. EFF) on the possibility of 'control'. Now decide whom you 'trust'.
When I read stuff like this it always amazes me that people actually think such things can be predicted for any degree of usefulness.
I doubt that those who fund actually believe that, but are in need for a proper envelope to direct the money to worthy and willing puppet researchers usable for other projects as well (I have the suspicion that there are a lot of those at the 'University of Arizona', all keen to use AI for repression, among them a Fei-Yue Wang (Chinese Academy of Sciences), especially interested in using robots in riot control — go figure).
You may turn that into one that is completely on topic by mentioning that their use of the term 'bias' might shine a light on the overall quality of their research on the basis of a self-selecting sample, which they are not shy to advertise to give a 'true' picture, which again shows that they do no less than nothing about statistics based research. They don't even come to a conclusive result regarding the count of items their questionnaire might have, 36 or 37 (here http://www.alistapart.com/articles/webdesignsurvey — does not matter, just a fence-post error.
However, the meta-result to me is that they again expose themselves as half-educated and overhyped. Yes, I do not particularly like them, along with Dash, Pirillo,... you name them.
Interestingly (as I have just discovered), quote: "Trinary is an artistic language in David Brin's Uplift series of science fiction novels, spoken largely by dolphins or "neo-fins." The language is largely regarded to have high poetic potential, and is in fact ideal for such things as the construction of any poetry, from haikus to dirty limericks."
Brin seems to have interesting views, quote: "In a time of increasing political polarization, I have urged (in my most recent essay, "The Ostrich Papers") that we look past the simplistic and outdated "left-right political axis." Yes, there is madness going on. But I suggest that the cure is not bitter "culture war." Rather, moderate and decent citizens of the Enlightenment need to reach out to other decent people -- even those who have swallowed nonsense. At stake is preserving a nation of modern confidence from a looming dark age."
Slashdot Mirror
how is it "semantic" web exactly?
Presumably they want to research how to trick people into providing markup/classification (that current 'AI' with a lack of reading comprehension/natural language competence (ever come across a decent 'automagic' translation?) fails to deliver) and sell the results for corporations to use. Seen this way, it is a cornerstone to the advancement of wealth creation, adding an exciting new semantic dimension to 'Rich Web Clients' (of Spivack).
CC.
There has to be a risk margin. I was just surpised how large it was.
More like this:
Do some market research to check how many 'early adopters' would bear how much. Fix price accordingly.
Do this for 'early majority' etc. as well and reduce price stepwise to maximise profits.
For the technical side: Check out the threshold for consumers to get frustrated and adjust specs just above.
Not that this is specific to Apple.
CC.
hologram storage
Just not exactly mainstream.
Capacity 300GB to 1.6TB (2010), media from $180 list price, drive at 18,000$.
And it is used.
CC.
My original guess, which this reinforces, was that apple took a huge gamble on the technology. Craploads could have gone wrong. The screens might have scratched to easily, the batteries might have died prematurely, the OS might have blue screened. . So many untested things you can't really adequately Q/A before the roll out.
So, after all, it looks like NASA gambles quite well.
CC.
... more easily on a female geek's beaver -- http://freshpics.blogspot.com/2007/04/beaver-pc-modding.html
CC.
~10000 would be a good guess.
Quote: "Mueller, an associate professor of computer science, has built a supercomputing cluster capable of both high-performance computing and running the latest in computer gaming. His cluster of eight PS3 machines - the first such academic cluster in the world - packs the power of a small supercomputer, but at a total cost of about $5,000, it costs less than some desktop computers that have only a fraction of the computing power.
...
Mueller estimates that with approximately 10,000 PS3 machines anyone could create the fastest computer in the world - albeit with limited single-precision capabilities and networking constraints."
CC.
We are not "afraid", we are cautious and -- unlike the Burmese -- we are far more trustful of our government. And for good reasons...
...
Caution seems to be indeed in place
"America's global image has again slipped and support for the war on terrorism has declined even among close US allies like Japan. The war in Iraq is a continuing drag on opinions of the United States, not only in predominantly Muslim countries but in Europe and Asia as well. And despite growing concern over Iran's nuclear ambitions, the US presence in Iraq is cited at least as often as Iran - and in many countries much more often - as a danger to world peace." ( CSM, quoting a PEW study).
Whether one should trust in a government creating this type of image is questionable, at best.
CC.
... if it really must be Schneier, read: "Why the Human Brain Is a Poor Judge of Risk" ( Wired ), but better immediately turn to Kahneman .
CC.
losership
Even Google thinks 'Did you mean: leadership'. Maybe failing miserably comes in handy these days.
CC.
Earlier 'research' was conducted by a Rick Nevin. This 'scientist' also stated:
"Rick Nevin examined the association between blood lead levels in U.S. children and IQ changes over several decades. He concluded that "long-term trends in population exposure to gasoline lead were... remarkably consistent with subsequent changes in violent crime and unwed pregnancy," and that paint and gasoline lead levels correlated with changes in murder rates. Improvements in children's IQ scores over several decades, as measured by the Cognitive Abilities Test, also showed a strong correlation wi ith declining blood lead levels."
http://www.crimetimes.org/00c/w00cp4.htm
Now who would have imagined?
CC.
From TFA: "This kind of information paints a picture of what a person is thinking or doing." ... "In practical terms, Jaiku's mobile application allows users to broadcast not only their whereabouts, but how the phone is being used, even what kind of music it is playing. ... "
It has leaked that there are plans to make the use of the service mandatory for US-inhabitants.
CC.
this will become a real pain when the Vista upgrade comes
Now do not complain; it is a big move from the necessity to reboot ever so often that you probably were accustomed to in former times, but still gives the cosy feeling of 'Déjà Vu', thus creating an exciting product experience.
CC.
The fact the pilot knew to discuss it with passengers before it happened meant it was not a close call.
It was not a collision.
If it was/was not a 'close call' can not be decided, as we do not exactly know about vertical/horizontal separation.
I am not 'people'.
CC.
... shortly later this plane came whipping past at what seemed like touching distance. Now that was clearly not a close call, but if the pilot had not talked about it we'd probably have thought it was.
Because the pilot cared to talk about it, that was clearly a close call.
CC.
... to place the information that the upcoming world leading DCOS is very green.
CC.
Linux offers POWER!
Sounds more like a ZPM, which is a better analogy anyway.
CC.
In Soviet Russia, there were 'standing room only' flights.
No kidding.
Convergence.
CC.
I just cannot imagine extra terrestrials being willing to put up with the multi-year latency required to post and retrieve photos from an earth-based server.
They have invented instant messaging.
CC.
If 'insightful' one would not claim to be 'atheist', but agnostic, quote: "An atheist, like a Christian, holds that we can know whether or not there is a God. The Christian holds that we can know there is a God; the atheist, that we can know there is not. The Agnostic suspends judgment, saying that there are not sufficient grounds either for affirmation or for denial. At the same time, an Agnostic may hold that the existence of God, though not impossible, is very improbable; he may even hold it so improbable that it is not worth considering in practice." (Russell)
CC.
... Thus spoke the creator: "Truth will triumph. It always does. However, I figure truth is a variable, so we're right back where we started from."
* Galloway Gallegher, in "The Proud Robot" by Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore)
found finally at http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Truth
CC.
FYI: "A writer who seems to have fallen into obscurity these days is Henry Kuttner. He died young and his reputation has been eclipsed by the writers who came after him. But both on his own and in collaboration with his wife C. L. Moore he produced some of the funniest stories I have ever read. Some have been collected -- though long out of print Robots Have No Tails occasionally surfaces in second hand bookshops. Make it your business to seek it out. It contains all the stories about Galloway Gallagher, a man whose subconscious is a brilliant scientist. When he is sober he is just an ordinary person, but when roaring drunk his subconscious takes over and makes the most incredible inventions. The stories concern the efforts of a hungover and very repentant Gallagher trying to figure out just what he's built this time. Why, for example, could he possibly have built a robot with a transparent body? And having done that, why did he make it so vain that all it wants to do is stand in front of a mirror watching its cogs go round? To find the answer to that conundrum, read The Proud Robot." (c.f)
we could even see an Open Source MS Office suite
Yes, when finally almost everybody has moved to 'trendy' web-delivered-applications (e.g.) and devices for the general 'customers' come with plans.
CC.
It is different views of the same thing. Corporate entities (e.g. M$) put the (marketed) emphasis on 'trust' while those concerned with freedom (e.g. EFF) on the possibility of 'control'. Now decide whom you 'trust'.
CC.
When I read stuff like this it always amazes me that people actually think such things can be predicted for any degree of usefulness.
I doubt that those who fund actually believe that, but are in need for a proper envelope to direct the money to worthy and willing puppet researchers usable for other projects as well (I have the suspicion that there are a lot of those at the 'University of Arizona', all keen to use AI for repression, among them a Fei-Yue Wang (Chinese Academy of Sciences), especially interested in using robots in riot control — go figure).
CC.
I don't mean to start an offtopic discussion
... you name them.
You may turn that into one that is completely on topic by mentioning that their use of the term 'bias' might shine a light on the overall quality of their research on the basis of a self-selecting sample, which they are not shy to advertise to give a 'true' picture, which again shows that they do no less than nothing about statistics based research. They don't even come to a conclusive result regarding the count of items their questionnaire might have, 36 or 37 (here http://www.alistapart.com/articles/webdesignsurvey — does not matter, just a fence-post error.
However, the meta-result to me is that they again expose themselves as half-educated and overhyped. Yes, I do not particularly like them, along with Dash, Pirillo,
CC.
Interestingly (as I have just discovered), quote: "Trinary is an artistic language in David Brin's Uplift series of science fiction novels, spoken largely by dolphins or "neo-fins." The language is largely regarded to have high poetic potential, and is in fact ideal for such things as the construction of any poetry, from haikus to dirty limericks."
Brin seems to have interesting views, quote: "In a time of increasing political polarization, I have urged (in my most recent essay, "The Ostrich Papers") that we look past the simplistic and outdated "left-right political axis." Yes, there is madness going on. But I suggest that the cure is not bitter "culture war." Rather, moderate and decent citizens of the Enlightenment need to reach out to other decent people -- even those who have swallowed nonsense. At stake is preserving a nation of modern confidence from a looming dark age."
CC.