Note: I do recognize and appreciate the need to make javascript perform better.
Thing is...it seems that for many tech "journalists" hardly anything besides js matters anymore!
Notice how Opera said "the fastets on earth"; which might be still debatable of course, but they did not say "...fastest in javascript". Opera knows that's not the whole story in browser performance. You can see it especially when using Opera on some ancient machine where the difference is most startling. WebMonkey seems to know it too (nah, not reading TFA...)
CNET, ZDNet and The Reg seem to care only about JS...
What is it? Some new widespread fascination with numbers like in 3DMark heyday? "Journalists" taking the easy route by simply running automatic benchmarks? (written "for" Opera competitors BTW...)
PS. Not saying that 1208 would be a good choice, that phone doesn't even have GPRS;p
But you get the idea; you can go really cheap if you just want a good phone with data access (they are way below $100 now; price without contract of course)
"why not do something like that via bluetooth" - because Apple won't allow it (iTouch does have bluetooth...)
And there is a possibility via WiFi already - a software for some smartphones that allows them to act as a WiFi hotspot; Joikuspot for Symbian for example. But it's not very attractive IMHO - not only your particular Symbian phone needs to have WiFi, but also there's unnecessary overlap of functionalities between iTouch and Symbian smartphone. It would be much more lean if data access was provided via something like, say, Nokia 1208 even (a phone with ridiculously great reception and battery life; which I would probably carry with iPhone anyway)
I think that will depend on the control you have over the functionality. Will the handset be aware of the radio? Will it be able to control it (turn it on and off)?
SIM cards often expose customized menus to the phone. Or, describing it other way around, are allowed to take over the phone. So I guess there is a possibility of sensible integration.
Well, Sagem and Telefonica certainly aren't concerned primarily about limitations of US cellphone market. Telefonica cares mostly about their network technology, which is quite firmly in GSM family. As is 80+% of mobile subsribers in the world.
I don't expect any drivers to be neccessary; this solution seems to be precisely about NOT using "special" phone. SIM cards typically expose to a phone their customized menu item, so there's certainly a way to control any functionality added in the hardware of said card.
Considering that it would be probably used predominatly as "personal hotspot" (giving data access from a mobile phone which you carry...to devices which you are using), the range can be quite a bit less than in typical WiFi hotspot.
The other way around is much more interesting - get iPod Touch and, if needed, connect via WiFi and this SIM card; placed in a mobile phone that is, well, primarily a good phone. Cheap. One of those with uberlong battery life.
On a sensibly priced contract or outright prepaid (I can get 4 GiB, valid for 3 months (and if recharged again before that 3 month cut-off, usnused data are added to new portion), for 12 Euro; good enough)
What you don't like about Google chat clients is irrelevant in the scope of XMPP interserver communication. It's about clients and server talking XMPP; also with 3rd party servers.
And you can use any Jabber client to connect to Google server...yes, Google clients present contact list in particular way. But it's just a standard XMPP, serverside roster; heck, groups of contacts are supported since the beginning even though Google clients work only in flat view.
What's hilarious is that those religious girls, at least where I live, quite often loose their virginity...at pilgrimadges, etc. (well, at least not to priests or monks AFAIK)
Which is partly explained of course by, while they engage in church life, their watchers aren't watching. "Our girl is safe there", "that is a good boy, he's active in church".
It's still hijacking. "A loving environment to practice kindness and support for each other" is family, often quite extended. And that's governed by more basic instincts. On the "loving" level, the succesful religions are mostly tapping what's already there. It's getting a bit fuzzy on the level of tribe; religion certainly can help it to be somewhat bigger and more stable, hence giving bonuses when competing (OTOH it also gave certain level of religious tolerance when larger loose society did form - "our gods" and "their gods" was just a fact of life).
But here's the kicker: historically typical "natural" faiths of such societies aren't held in much regard by many of most succesfull religions. And since the latter emphasise unity, it gave them the strenght to outcompete native faiths, forming much more integrated societies in the process. Which ultimatelly gave us agrarian, industrial and informational revolution...
I guess organised religions somewhat loosing relevance nowadays is related to the last revolution. Absolutist worldview present at their core suddenly doesn't work nearly as well when people have access to whole world at their fingertips; when they find themselves in a world not totally unlike of "loose tribal society"...in which completelly different kind of faiths worked.
Worked, and was replaced by stronger contestants. What will emerge this time?
Read more carefully what you quote. I said "of given religion", "what this religion".
If some supposedly democratic country consistently invades other countries crying "freedom" and "democracy"...then yes, that is what "freedom" and "democracy" stands for in this case. It doesn't say much about how other people or other countries use the same labels (other then in comparisons)
Yes, basically liquid bread. Made mostly from seeds after all (I guess fermenting them can potentially also improve digestion?). In distant past it was often very thick; far thicker then what you know as beer today (which has consistency of, well, water) from which the fermented mass is removed.
A very practical diet item. Provides some nutrition, satisfies thirst. With most nasties killed by alcohol, hence much smaller chance of making you really sick.
In my early teen years I was diagnosed with a form of this epilepsy. The thing not mentioned in the post above is that such form of spirituality goes away somewhat if the condition is dealt with quickly, as happened in my case. Few years later I stumbled upon some info and came to realize that I'm almost a textbook example (for short summary, see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschwind_syndrome )
What many of you can't really grasp, without experiencing it, is how real it feels - basically the question about existence of spiritual part of reality doesn't come into it at all; it's just present, that's...obvious. Only after it lessens the grip, you might ask yourself "what was that all about"?
The thing that it's often exploited by religious "guidance" certainly doesn't help to escape. And with TLE being one of more underdiagnosed forms of epilepsy (heck, it was almost a chance in my case), I wouldn't be surpised if statistically significant number of deeply religious people had a mild form. In case of such, you end up arguing against what is...very much real.
There is no "right" or "wrong"...there's just survival. Fact is, a certain level of spirituality was beneficial for most of organisms with complex neural system - oversensitive alertness helps survive. False positives in noticing things end up better than false negatives.
There was always a sweet spot of course - too much "internal stimuli" and the organism also was less succesfull in passing its traits. On human level you have complications with fullblown religions and societal dynamics, but it's still essentially about being convinced there might be something which is not there.
Not that usefull in many places now, sure. But still succesfull when it comes to passing it on.
If somebody would look up similar effect in animals - that would get fun.
Sometimes I do have the impression that my cat has a form of what we call spiritual life; certainly some occasional behaviours are difficult to explain only by higher specced hearing apparatus.
Religion is not exactly about individual spirituality; it's an organisation of many people (if I have to state the obvious...)
The sensible thing to do is not judging religions on the basis of what they (or their vocal speakers specifically) claim to represent, but by their actions - and if some pitiful affairs are a consistant element of given religion, then that is also what this religion represents deep down.
So one might say you, even when doing righteous things, are captured by colaterall damage of dishonorable things behind which your religions does stand. More, by identifying yourself with that particular organisation, you explicitly give those things support.
Also, why do you feel the need to hijack "spirituality" to fit only your purposes? Is that really a righteous thing to do?
Newton certainly didn't have your average brain. Abnormalities which, in connection to his enviroment, made him the father of classical mechanics...could as well contribute to his religious state.
Also, remember that in his times being highly non-religions still wasn't exactly the safest thing to do...
I might be thinking of exactly the same study that you mention - what you said doesn't really oppose my point; that consuming fermented fruit (or juice...) was better for us then not consuming them at all.
There was also another factor at play - water and food (because beer was really a food item originally; basically a "liquid bread") containing alcohol are better for you than those containing harmful microorganisms; even proper boiling was problematic for a long time, and it didn't stop degradation during storage; heck, availability of salts (which we take for granted) able to preserve food was often limited; our reliance on spices comes also from the fact that totally unspoiled food wasn't a daily thing; and so on...
So it's not really surprising that those whose genes survive in us, generally at last tolerated alcohol; even liked it (which is of course an issue now, once availability is not a problem). For a long time they had an advantage over those who did not consume it. Whether they have an advantage now is an open question (again, in reasonable quantities, those to which we adapted over many millenia). Same deal with, again, meat and its industry - they are a bit similar to at least alcohol one; with people often consuming probably two to three times the appriopriate amount of meat (and without much convincing; probably similar trap to alcohol one)
PS. Personal anecdote time; for some time now I drink basically just water (typically with very small amount of condensed juice added), juices and...light beer (though in reasonable quantities, lately it averages to something around a bottle per 2 days; and quite regularly, without any libations), plus some wine occasionally. Softdrinks are a rarity. No tea or cofee. Rest of diet - good balanced one not relying on heavily processed food, fair amount of milk/etc. and fruits. Though I do eat lots of chocolate...:p
What's in bold is the only notable change from my diet 2 years ago. I can assure you that it resultet, it seems, in very rapid and permanent cessation of tooth decay. Without any improvement in dental care on my part. Did alcohol help with it? Probably not per se. But at least it ends up much more healthy in this area, for me, than other widely accepted beverages.
Not a very useful metric, considering how on the most popular desktop OS OpenOffice requires downloading of installation package to upgrade. Yes, OSes with package management and OOo included, together with using the same download for installations and/or upgrades on several machines, swing the usage upwards; but I doubt it's anywhere enough to compensate.
Or only those researchers escaped the grasp of primitive AIs which govern us already; which have a firm interest in convincing us that they don't exist and will not exist!;)
In all seriousness - while I think that "human level" AI is indeed somewhat awkward and uninspiring goal, I fully expect constructs...no, not "post human", that's also similarly awkward. Rather - constructs that sidestep the issue, are too different, parallel to us. It shouldn't be a sudden emergence; more of a slow process that we won't exactly notice...one we are not exacly noticing already. Because it's happening around us, it's here; with us being already only a part of total abilities to process information and act on them. It's not about some single entity at which we can point fingers, and enityt which is in the grasp of our primate social cognitive abilities. It's the changing dynamics of interconnections, storage, processing and execution; with ever greater part ceasing to be organic. And it grows on us; I expect the trend to continue. It will still be a humanity...just one that humans from distant past might not recognize.
Will it win Nobel prize? Well, that prize is just what certain part of humanity gives to few entities of wetware. So no, not in the bounds of the prize.
Slashdot Mirror
Laptops don't have a middle mouse button...
Most laptops don't have a middle mouse button.
Would require some big organizational changes though; usually the ideas, solutions flow in the other direction ;)
Another similar feature is "Fit to Width" (on Status Bar lately, I think...unless I chnaged something; also in View menu)
Makes what it says, and typically manages to do it without breaking the layout. Usefull on, say, netbooks.
Note: I do recognize and appreciate the need to make javascript perform better.
Thing is...it seems that for many tech "journalists" hardly anything besides js matters anymore!
Notice how Opera said "the fastets on earth"; which might be still debatable of course, but they did not say "...fastest in javascript". Opera knows that's not the whole story in browser performance. You can see it especially when using Opera on some ancient machine where the difference is most startling. WebMonkey seems to know it too (nah, not reading TFA...)
CNET, ZDNet and The Reg seem to care only about JS...
What is it? Some new widespread fascination with numbers like in 3DMark heyday? "Journalists" taking the easy route by simply running automatic benchmarks? (written "for" Opera competitors BTW...)
PS. Not saying that 1208 would be a good choice, that phone doesn't even have GPRS ;p
But you get the idea; you can go really cheap if you just want a good phone with data access (they are way below $100 now; price without contract of course)
"why not do something like that via bluetooth" - because Apple won't allow it (iTouch does have bluetooth...)
And there is a possibility via WiFi already - a software for some smartphones that allows them to act as a WiFi hotspot; Joikuspot for Symbian for example. But it's not very attractive IMHO - not only your particular Symbian phone needs to have WiFi, but also there's unnecessary overlap of functionalities between iTouch and Symbian smartphone. It would be much more lean if data access was provided via something like, say, Nokia 1208 even (a phone with ridiculously great reception and battery life; which I would probably carry with iPhone anyway)
I think that will depend on the control you have over the functionality. Will the handset be aware of the radio? Will it be able to control it (turn it on and off)?
SIM cards often expose customized menus to the phone. Or, describing it other way around, are allowed to take over the phone. So I guess there is a possibility of sensible integration.
Well, Sagem and Telefonica certainly aren't concerned primarily about limitations of US cellphone market. Telefonica cares mostly about their network technology, which is quite firmly in GSM family. As is 80+% of mobile subsribers in the world.
I don't expect any drivers to be neccessary; this solution seems to be precisely about NOT using "special" phone. SIM cards typically expose to a phone their customized menu item, so there's certainly a way to control any functionality added in the hardware of said card.
Considering that it would be probably used predominatly as "personal hotspot" (giving data access from a mobile phone which you carry...to devices which you are using), the range can be quite a bit less than in typical WiFi hotspot.
The other way around is much more interesting - get iPod Touch and, if needed, connect via WiFi and this SIM card; placed in a mobile phone that is, well, primarily a good phone. Cheap. One of those with uberlong battery life.
On a sensibly priced contract or outright prepaid (I can get 4 GiB, valid for 3 months (and if recharged again before that 3 month cut-off, usnused data are added to new portion), for 12 Euro; good enough)
Worse, he claims there to know the level of individual enjoyment from Warner music; and how much it is worth.
To which I would like to say - I decide that. And from now on, Warmer music isn't worth listening to me.
What you don't like about Google chat clients is irrelevant in the scope of XMPP interserver communication. It's about clients and server talking XMPP; also with 3rd party servers.
And you can use any Jabber client to connect to Google server...yes, Google clients present contact list in particular way. But it's just a standard XMPP, serverside roster; heck, groups of contacts are supported since the beginning even though Google clients work only in flat view.
For starters, we don't seem to be bombarded with "with us or against us" rhetoric.
Also, current administration has at least enough tact to not encourage negative attitued towards, say, France; or "Old Europe".
What's hilarious is that those religious girls, at least where I live, quite often loose their virginity...at pilgrimadges, etc. (well, at least not to priests or monks AFAIK)
Which is partly explained of course by, while they engage in church life, their watchers aren't watching. "Our girl is safe there", "that is a good boy, he's active in church".
I guess that is what is called an opportunity...
It's still hijacking. "A loving environment to practice kindness and support for each other" is family, often quite extended. And that's governed by more basic instincts. On the "loving" level, the succesful religions are mostly tapping what's already there. It's getting a bit fuzzy on the level of tribe; religion certainly can help it to be somewhat bigger and more stable, hence giving bonuses when competing (OTOH it also gave certain level of religious tolerance when larger loose society did form - "our gods" and "their gods" was just a fact of life).
But here's the kicker: historically typical "natural" faiths of such societies aren't held in much regard by many of most succesfull religions. And since the latter emphasise unity, it gave them the strenght to outcompete native faiths, forming much more integrated societies in the process. Which ultimatelly gave us agrarian, industrial and informational revolution...
I guess organised religions somewhat loosing relevance nowadays is related to the last revolution. Absolutist worldview present at their core suddenly doesn't work nearly as well when people have access to whole world at their fingertips; when they find themselves in a world not totally unlike of "loose tribal society"...in which completelly different kind of faiths worked.
Worked, and was replaced by stronger contestants. What will emerge this time?
Read more carefully what you quote. I said "of given religion", "what this religion".
If some supposedly democratic country consistently invades other countries crying "freedom" and "democracy"...then yes, that is what "freedom" and "democracy" stands for in this case. It doesn't say much about how other people or other countries use the same labels (other then in comparisons)
Yes, basically liquid bread. Made mostly from seeds after all (I guess fermenting them can potentially also improve digestion?). In distant past it was often very thick; far thicker then what you know as beer today (which has consistency of, well, water) from which the fermented mass is removed.
A very practical diet item. Provides some nutrition, satisfies thirst. With most nasties killed by alcohol, hence much smaller chance of making you really sick.
I can certainly vouch for this.
In my early teen years I was diagnosed with a form of this epilepsy. The thing not mentioned in the post above is that such form of spirituality goes away somewhat if the condition is dealt with quickly, as happened in my case. Few years later I stumbled upon some info and came to realize that I'm almost a textbook example (for short summary, see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschwind_syndrome )
What many of you can't really grasp, without experiencing it, is how real it feels - basically the question about existence of spiritual part of reality doesn't come into it at all; it's just present, that's...obvious. Only after it lessens the grip, you might ask yourself "what was that all about"?
The thing that it's often exploited by religious "guidance" certainly doesn't help to escape. And with TLE being one of more underdiagnosed forms of epilepsy (heck, it was almost a chance in my case), I wouldn't be surpised if statistically significant number of deeply religious people had a mild form. In case of such, you end up arguing against what is...very much real.
There is no "right" or "wrong"...there's just survival. Fact is, a certain level of spirituality was beneficial for most of organisms with complex neural system - oversensitive alertness helps survive. False positives in noticing things end up better than false negatives.
There was always a sweet spot of course - too much "internal stimuli" and the organism also was less succesfull in passing its traits. On human level you have complications with fullblown religions and societal dynamics, but it's still essentially about being convinced there might be something which is not there.
Not that usefull in many places now, sure. But still succesfull when it comes to passing it on.
If somebody would look up similar effect in animals - that would get fun.
Sometimes I do have the impression that my cat has a form of what we call spiritual life; certainly some occasional behaviours are difficult to explain only by higher specced hearing apparatus.
Religion is not exactly about individual spirituality; it's an organisation of many people (if I have to state the obvious...)
The sensible thing to do is not judging religions on the basis of what they (or their vocal speakers specifically) claim to represent, but by their actions - and if some pitiful affairs are a consistant element of given religion, then that is also what this religion represents deep down.
So one might say you, even when doing righteous things, are captured by colaterall damage of dishonorable things behind which your religions does stand. More, by identifying yourself with that particular organisation, you explicitly give those things support.
Also, why do you feel the need to hijack "spirituality" to fit only your purposes? Is that really a righteous thing to do?
Newton certainly didn't have your average brain. Abnormalities which, in connection to his enviroment, made him the father of classical mechanics...could as well contribute to his religious state.
Also, remember that in his times being highly non-religions still wasn't exactly the safest thing to do...
I might be thinking of exactly the same study that you mention - what you said doesn't really oppose my point; that consuming fermented fruit (or juice...) was better for us then not consuming them at all.
There was also another factor at play - water and food (because beer was really a food item originally; basically a "liquid bread") containing alcohol are better for you than those containing harmful microorganisms; even proper boiling was problematic for a long time, and it didn't stop degradation during storage; heck, availability of salts (which we take for granted) able to preserve food was often limited; our reliance on spices comes also from the fact that totally unspoiled food wasn't a daily thing; and so on...
So it's not really surprising that those whose genes survive in us, generally at last tolerated alcohol; even liked it (which is of course an issue now, once availability is not a problem). For a long time they had an advantage over those who did not consume it. Whether they have an advantage now is an open question (again, in reasonable quantities, those to which we adapted over many millenia). Same deal with, again, meat and its industry - they are a bit similar to at least alcohol one; with people often consuming probably two to three times the appriopriate amount of meat (and without much convincing; probably similar trap to alcohol one)
PS. Personal anecdote time; for some time now I drink basically just water (typically with very small amount of condensed juice added), juices and...light beer (though in reasonable quantities, lately it averages to something around a bottle per 2 days; and quite regularly, without any libations), plus some wine occasionally. Softdrinks are a rarity. No tea or cofee. Rest of diet - good balanced one not relying on heavily processed food, fair amount of milk/etc. and fruits. Though I do eat lots of chocolate... :p
What's in bold is the only notable change from my diet 2 years ago. I can assure you that it resultet, it seems, in very rapid and permanent cessation of tooth decay. Without any improvement in dental care on my part. Did alcohol help with it? Probably not per se. But at least it ends up much more healthy in this area, for me, than other widely accepted beverages.
Not a very useful metric, considering how on the most popular desktop OS OpenOffice requires downloading of installation package to upgrade. Yes, OSes with package management and OOo included, together with using the same download for installations and/or upgrades on several machines, swing the usage upwards; but I doubt it's anywhere enough to compensate.
Or only those researchers escaped the grasp of primitive AIs which govern us already; which have a firm interest in convincing us that they don't exist and will not exist! ;)
In all seriousness - while I think that "human level" AI is indeed somewhat awkward and uninspiring goal, I fully expect constructs...no, not "post human", that's also similarly awkward. Rather - constructs that sidestep the issue, are too different, parallel to us. It shouldn't be a sudden emergence; more of a slow process that we won't exactly notice...one we are not exacly noticing already. Because it's happening around us, it's here; with us being already only a part of total abilities to process information and act on them. It's not about some single entity at which we can point fingers, and enityt which is in the grasp of our primate social cognitive abilities. It's the changing dynamics of interconnections, storage, processing and execution; with ever greater part ceasing to be organic. And it grows on us; I expect the trend to continue. It will still be a humanity...just one that humans from distant past might not recognize.
Will it win Nobel prize? Well, that prize is just what certain part of humanity gives to few entities of wetware. So no, not in the bounds of the prize.