One interesting project is USC iLab's Beobots, which basically puts a very small Beowulf cluster on a mobile robot, with available source code and design plans. They also have a very neat neuromorphic vision toolkit in general.
Well I think it's time for the garbage collector of the news world. Someone who goes through year or three old science and technology magazines looking for projects where the leaders say things like "this technique will replace everything else" or "I expect my system to develop self-awareness over the next 18 months" and brings a bit of closure to them.
To an extent, can't Wikipedia articles be used for that?
But Capitalizing Every Word In That Headline Really Seemed To Stand Out More Than Usual.
I'm not sure why they do that, but capitalizing almost all the words in the title is more of a slashdot editor thing than a submitter thing. I guess I can sort of understand why they'd want to capitalize titles like that, but it seems like overkill on a page like slashdot. In the past I've tried submitting stories without the overcapitalization, only to find the capitalization altered by the editors when the story is actually posted.
If you really think that prices are going to be reaching these values in the near future, why haven't you bought up oodles of futures contracts on oil?
Stross' "Singularity Sky" is a great read, if a bit odd. While reading it I did get the impression that it relied on knowing beforehand what a singularity was, and what causality violations are. It had a kind of spent-the-last-few-years-reading-slashdot mentality, and I worried that it relied on too much geek-background to be widely enjoyed.
Some of us over on Wikibooks have started putting together a "technical companion to Accelerando, available here:
Hopefully this can help provide some of that "geek background" for Accelerando. Here's (the current version of) the introductory description:
This is a technical companion to Charlie Stross's latest novel, Accelerando. Stross's book can be quite dense in unusual technical terms and concepts, which can sometimes be quite confusing to readers unfamiliar with them. The purpose of this companion is to help alleviate any confusions the reader may have, as well as to introduce new confusions by giving the reader an idea of the current state and expected future of the technologies described in the novel. Wherever possible, brief information on relevant research papers is provided.
The novel is available as a free download from the official site, and will also be available for purchase in bookstores on July 1, 2005.
The first part of this technical companion is a glossary, intended to explain and elaborate on concepts without giving away plot details. Keep in mind, however, that simply knowing that the novel involves a particular term may be a spoiler in some sense, so some may wish to defer consultation of the glossary. Indeed, part of the appeal of Accelerando is the sense of confusion one gets by being exposed to the technical flurry.
The second part is a chapter guide, where chapter-specific commentary is given. This is bound to be chock-full of spoilers.
The call for an environmental protocol to the Antarctic Treaty came after scientists discovered large deposits of natural resources such as coal, natural gas and offshore oil reserves in the early 1980s. Antarctica is considered to be part of the theoretical super-continent known as Gondwanaland, which separated near the end of the Paleozoic era and consisted of South America, Africa and Australia. And, because it once was completely covered in vegetation, many scientists believe it may hold one of the last supergiant oil fields yet to be discovered. The continental shelf of Antarctica is considered to hold the region's greatest potential for oil exploration projects, and although estimates vary as to the abundance of oil in Antarctica, the Weddell and Ross Sea areas alone are expected to possess 50 billion barrels of oil - an amount roughly equivalent to that of Alaska's estimated reserves. However, Antarctica's extreme conditions make oil field accessibility in many areas economically problematic....
The devastating March 24, 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound two months later sent an even stronger alarm around the world to dozens of international environmental organizations for the need to protect Antarctica's unique environment from similar accidents. Although avoiding altogether the issue of sovereignty claims, the development of the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty is viewed as a model for future environmental treaties which employ the precautionary principle towards natural resource exploration.
Check out this Wikipedia article on the Antarctic Treaty System . If it works for one cold, barren, place, perhaps it could work for another.
If I recall correctly, the Antarctic Treaty effectively forbids private property rights and economic activity on the continent. While I'm sure many in the "keep humans away from space" crowd would be happy with maintaining such an arrangement for space, I'm rather opposed to it, as I'd very much like to see humanity become a spacefaring species.
Have you not heard of the prospect of using solar sails for interstellar travel?
Sure, which are only useful for providing acceleration where the sunlight is strong. Where the sunlight isn't strong, you need to rely on things like lasers and microwaves being beamed directly to the sail.
A few weeks ago I tried submitting the following story to slashdot, but it kept on getting rejected (same with these stories). As seems to be becoming tradition, I thought it would be relevant to the current topic, so I've pasted the text here. And no, it's not Karma-whoring if my Karma's already been maxed out for years.:)
At a recent talk, Michael Griffin outlined NASA's plans for helping to generate a robust and competitive commercial market in orbital spaceflight. The speech and Q&A transcripts from the talk are available. In a move reminiscent of the US government kickstarting the early airline industry by purchasing airmail services, NASA plans on supplementing government-derived transport by purchasing cargo delivery services to the International Space Station from commercial providers, followed by crew transportation after the systems have proven themselves. Unlike traditional government contracts, sellers wouldn't see a profit before the services are delivered and the emphasis will be on actual performance instead of process and specifications. Aviation Week has some commentary on the announcement.
I also think I remember seeing something before about NASA selling one of the launch complexes at Kennedy Space Center to SpaceX, but can't find more info. Does anybody have a link to more on that?
Are you really saying that you think the only difference between whether something is evil or not is whether people were forced into doing it against their own will?
On the topic of downloadable literature about rapidly-accelerating technology, Charlie Stross's newest novel is available for free download. Here's the relevant info (from another one of my slashdot submission attempts):
Programmer-novelist and Hugo nominee Charles Stross has gotten permission from his publishers to make his newest novel, Accelerando, available as a free download in several formats. As described by one reviewer: 'Accelerando fast forwards a not-so-average family through three generations and into a future in which humans seem far more alien than any critters from outer space. With heart, humor and extreme technophilia, Stross embarks on a voyage that unwires humanity and rewires readers to experience the Singularity. As the novel can be somewhat dense in novel technical ideas, I've started a Technical Companion on wikibooks to help provide more information on the relevant concepts.
sex programs to improve the breeding stock and remove pollutants from the genepool so as to produce 'healthier future germans' were couched in just as comfy terms as the trans-humanists are proposing..
In the case of the Nazis, those were all enforced at gunpoint. Are you seriously equating voluntary applications of technology to Nazi concentration camps and genocide?
Her description: OK, I've managed to get back on the raw image website, and I grabbed a whole bunch of the images that we were apparently looking at earlier. I just threw together this little animation, showing mostly Impact Targeting Sensor images, but moving at the end to some Medium Resolution Imager images. Now, I've probably dropped some frames, and these images are smaller than the ones the scientists get to use, but I have to say that this is pretty sweet as it is. I can't wait to see what the scientists produce!
Slashdot Mirror
One interesting project is USC iLab's Beobots, which basically puts a very small Beowulf cluster on a mobile robot, with available source code and design plans. They also have a very neat neuromorphic vision toolkit in general.
Well I think it's time for the garbage collector of the news world. Someone who goes through year or three old science and technology magazines looking for projects where the leaders say things like "this technique will replace everything else" or "I expect my system to develop self-awareness over the next 18 months" and brings a bit of closure to them.
To an extent, can't Wikipedia articles be used for that?
But Capitalizing Every Word In That Headline Really Seemed To Stand Out More Than Usual.
I'm not sure why they do that, but capitalizing almost all the words in the title is more of a slashdot editor thing than a submitter thing. I guess I can sort of understand why they'd want to capitalize titles like that, but it seems like overkill on a page like slashdot. In the past I've tried submitting stories without the overcapitalization, only to find the capitalization altered by the editors when the story is actually posted.
Did any of CMU's DARPA vehicles go down the buggy course this year? I wasn't able to go back for Carnival this time. Are there any videos available?
What will you do when gas reaches $5 per gallon?
What will you do when it reaches $10?
If you really think that prices are going to be reaching these values in the near future, why haven't you bought up oodles of futures contracts on oil?
Are the same guy that was spitefully linking to his ex-girlfriend's blog last year? If so dude, that really isn't cool.
A couple of months ago NASA posted some even better videos of the Martian dust devils, available here:
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07139
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07140
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07138
There's also a rather neat video of Opportunity escaping from the sand trap.
Stross' "Singularity Sky" is a great read, if a bit odd. While reading it I did get the impression that it relied on knowing beforehand what a singularity was, and what causality violations are. It had a kind of spent-the-last-few-years-reading-slashdot mentality, and I worried that it relied on too much geek-background to be widely enjoyed.
l _Companion
Some of us over on Wikibooks have started putting together a "technical companion to Accelerando, available here:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Accelerando_Technica
Hopefully this can help provide some of that "geek background" for Accelerando. Here's (the current version of) the introductory description:
This is a technical companion to Charlie Stross's latest novel, Accelerando. Stross's book can be quite dense in unusual technical terms and concepts, which can sometimes be quite confusing to readers unfamiliar with them. The purpose of this companion is to help alleviate any confusions the reader may have, as well as to introduce new confusions by giving the reader an idea of the current state and expected future of the technologies described in the novel. Wherever possible, brief information on relevant research papers is provided.
The novel is available as a free download from the official site, and will also be available for purchase in bookstores on July 1, 2005.
The first part of this technical companion is a glossary, intended to explain and elaborate on concepts without giving away plot details. Keep in mind, however, that simply knowing that the novel involves a particular term may be a spoiler in some sense, so some may wish to defer consultation of the glossary. Indeed, part of the appeal of Accelerando is the sense of confusion one gets by being exposed to the technical flurry.
The second part is a chapter guide, where chapter-specific commentary is given. This is bound to be chock-full of spoilers.
Parent: We'll see if you're still saying after they find oil there!
...
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/antarctica.html
The call for an environmental protocol to the Antarctic Treaty came after scientists discovered large deposits of natural resources such as coal, natural gas and offshore oil reserves in the early 1980s. Antarctica is considered to be part of the theoretical super-continent known as Gondwanaland, which separated near the end of the Paleozoic era and consisted of South America, Africa and Australia. And, because it once was completely covered in vegetation, many scientists believe it may hold one of the last supergiant oil fields yet to be discovered. The continental shelf of Antarctica is considered to hold the region's greatest potential for oil exploration projects, and although estimates vary as to the abundance of oil in Antarctica, the Weddell and Ross Sea areas alone are expected to possess 50 billion barrels of oil - an amount roughly equivalent to that of Alaska's estimated reserves. However, Antarctica's extreme conditions make oil field accessibility in many areas economically problematic.
The devastating March 24, 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound two months later sent an even stronger alarm around the world to dozens of international environmental organizations for the need to protect Antarctica's unique environment from similar accidents. Although avoiding altogether the issue of sovereignty claims, the development of the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty is viewed as a model for future environmental treaties which employ the precautionary principle towards natural resource exploration.
Check out this Wikipedia article on the Antarctic Treaty System . If it works for one cold, barren, place, perhaps it could work for another.
If I recall correctly, the Antarctic Treaty effectively forbids private property rights and economic activity on the continent. While I'm sure many in the "keep humans away from space" crowd would be happy with maintaining such an arrangement for space, I'm rather opposed to it, as I'd very much like to see humanity become a spacefaring species.
Hm... I wonder why they don't use a form factor more like the EyeTap. It's far less bulky and you still have one of your eyes available.
Have you not heard of the prospect of using solar sails for interstellar travel?
Sure, which are only useful for providing acceleration where the sunlight is strong. Where the sunlight isn't strong, you need to rely on things like lasers and microwaves being beamed directly to the sail.
I could be wrong about this, but I heard there was talk of Sun power actually existing in space, outside of Earth!
Sure, but it's really only useful in the inner solar system.
A few weeks ago I tried submitting the following story to slashdot, but it kept on getting rejected (same with these stories). As seems to be becoming tradition, I thought it would be relevant to the current topic, so I've pasted the text here. And no, it's not Karma-whoring if my Karma's already been maxed out for years. :)
At a recent talk, Michael Griffin outlined NASA's plans for helping to generate a robust and competitive commercial market in orbital spaceflight. The speech and Q&A transcripts from the talk are available. In a move reminiscent of the US government kickstarting the early airline industry by purchasing airmail services, NASA plans on supplementing government-derived transport by purchasing cargo delivery services to the International Space Station from commercial providers, followed by crew transportation after the systems have proven themselves. Unlike traditional government contracts, sellers wouldn't see a profit before the services are delivered and the emphasis will be on actual performance instead of process and specifications. Aviation Week has some commentary on the announcement.
I also think I remember seeing something before about NASA selling one of the launch complexes at Kennedy Space Center to SpaceX, but can't find more info. Does anybody have a link to more on that?
And the Soviet Union before that... check out the photos of the Polyus weapons platform.
Hey, it was 1999. Blink tags may have still been in style back then.
To steal someone else's joke, would a cloned Neanderthal be eligible for the NFL draft?
I'm just wondering if/when the following robot story is going to hit slashdot:
New Scientist: Robot hand performs remote breast checks
Yeah, I was greatly amused by that part as well. :)
I'm not Charlie, but I suspect he may be 'antipope' on slashdot.
So you know what boiled frog tastes like, then?
Huh? I suspect I'm missing a subtlety here...
Are you really saying that you think the only difference between whether something is evil or not is whether people were forced into doing it against their own will?
In many cases, yes.
On the topic of downloadable literature about rapidly-accelerating technology, Charlie Stross's newest novel is available for free download. Here's the relevant info (from another one of my slashdot submission attempts):
Programmer-novelist and Hugo nominee Charles Stross has gotten permission from his publishers to make his newest novel, Accelerando, available as a free download in several formats. As described by one reviewer: 'Accelerando fast forwards a not-so-average family through three generations and into a future in which humans seem far more alien than any critters from outer space. With heart, humor and extreme technophilia, Stross embarks on a voyage that unwires humanity and rewires readers to experience the Singularity. As the novel can be somewhat dense in novel technical ideas, I've started a Technical Companion on wikibooks to help provide more information on the relevant concepts.
sex programs to improve the breeding stock and remove pollutants from the genepool so as to produce 'healthier future germans' were couched in just as comfy terms as the trans-humanists are proposing..
In the case of the Nazis, those were all enforced at gunpoint. Are you seriously equating voluntary applications of technology to Nazi concentration camps and genocide?
(There are certain European nations' whose trans-humanism has gotten them into an awful, awful, amount of trouble.)
Example?
The Planetary Society's Emily Lakdawalla put together a fairly nice animated GIF of the impact and posted it to the Society's official blog:
g es/encounter/animation-small.gif
http://planetary.org.nyud.net:8090/deepimpact/ima
Her description: OK, I've managed to get back on the raw image website, and I grabbed a whole bunch of the images that we were apparently looking at earlier. I just threw together this little animation, showing mostly Impact Targeting Sensor images, but moving at the end to some Medium Resolution Imager images. Now, I've probably dropped some frames, and these images are smaller than the ones the scientists get to use, but I have to say that this is pretty sweet as it is. I can't wait to see what the scientists produce!