I don't remember exactly, but I think it was the original Space Invaders arcade game. My dad liked to play it, and would lift me up to use the controls. I remember seeing a poster at McDonald's that they were giving away Atari home computer systems - I thought it was the coolest thing in the world - being able to play space invaders at home. My parent's got me a really cheap all-in-one LCD "computer" that had a few basic spelling and music games. Then they got me the Timex Sinclair 1000 with flight simulator and the 16k expansion pack. THEN came the VIC-20, where I started to learn basic. I really got hooked on computers, though, when they took me to the local Hudson's, that had an enormous computer department. Everything from TI99/4s to Ataris to Commodores to Apple IIs, to a sweet demonstration IBM PC with a lucite case, to a Lisa. Lisa was the most insanely high tech thing I had ever seen - and got me hooked on Apples ever since.
* Getting a computer to recognize the difference between a toddler crawling on the road, versus a doll on the road.
This can be done, there are object classification algorithms that can make the determination, especially if the toddler is crawling.
* Seeing well in the rain.
This can be done using near-IR cameras, in fact they can see better than you probably could.
* Telling the difference between a dishwasher carton (which might not have to be braked for, versus a fallen cubic meter of rock.
No, you break for both. If ANYTHING substantial in size is in the road, you break, I know I wouldn't go blasting through a big cardboard box.
* Telling the difference between a solid object and just a splash of water.
This one is easy using two cameras to get a 3d picture, or if you want to get fancy you could use LIDAR.
Keep in mind, this isn't the DARPA challenge. For the most part, roads are known quantities, and a good path following and obstacle avoidance package combined with an accurate GPS system would make this entirely feasable.
Why was a concept car even in consideration for the list (referenced in the Tesla section.) GM says 2010 for production, there's a working prototype, what makes it vapor?
There is TONs of material with which to make a sequel, or prequel, or whatever. There's The Silmarillion, jammed with history and various tales. The recently published The Children of Húrin, recounting the very early history of Middle Earth. They could go into detail about the attack on Dol Guldur, which took place during the Hobbit.
The one thing Peter Jackson doesn't have to worry about is lack of stories set in Middle Earth, the biggest job is to choose which one.
I remember seeing one, in all places, at a sales booth at the state fair. They looked like something out of star trek, the games were crazy looking for the time. The price was steep for a videogame console, I ended up getting a VIC-20.
I *almost* got a FZ8, it's fantastic in every respect but one - the sensors and Venus processor are NOISY in all but bright light. This is a huge dealbreaker, noise is one thing you can't post-process out effectively. I ended up getting an older Fuji - not quite as nice but very low noise. It takes beautiful pics.
There are quite a few comparisons out there of lossy audio quality across multiple music types and listeners. LAME encoding MP3 usually comes out on top for higher bitrate lossy compression, followed by Vorbis. Vorbis comes out better at lower compression rates, but AAC is close.
Vorbis is an excellent compressor, but LAME often beats it, mainly because it's a very mature codebase and it's psychoacoustic model has been tweaked to near perfection. Vorbis can get there - but it'll take time. What's really hurting Vorbis is the lack of support in iTunes/iPods - the most popular players out there. If Vorbis was available on this platform, you'd see a lot more interest in development, I think.
I've ripped all of my CDs to FLAC, then transcode to MP3 as needed for our iPods.
"Apple still faces two lawsuits in the US from people alleging that preventing users unlocking their iPhones is an unreasonable restriction of consumer choice."
I'm sorry, but it's a friggin' cell phone. If you don't like the terms of service then don't buy one. I don't like AT&T so I'm not getting one.
Verizon, on the other hand, is opening up their network and embracing Android, which will hopefully start up the unlocked cell phone market in earnest. Shrewd move on Verizon's part, this will turn up the heat on the exclusivity contract between Apple and AT&T.
I don't use either service, so I don't particularly care:)
Wow, Symbolics was ahead of the curve. Too bad their hardware cost and arm and a leg.
I don't remember the fist web site I visited - but I remember it was using Lynx. I used gopher all the time, though. Turbogopher ran a lot better on the Mac LC3s at the University computer lab than the pre-beta of Mosaic.
"Godwin's Law is bullshit. If one picks comparable attributes it is perfectly reasonable to compare people and governments to Hitler and the Nazi movement."
What rhetorical purpose does comparing 1930s Nazi Germany with the USA in 2000 fulfill? You can find similarities between any two random civilizations, unless you are comparing very specific societal effects, making generalizations are useless beyond throwing firebombs into a conversation.
"The fallacy YOU'RE engaging in is: "Any comparison of right-wing American political leaders to Hitler, Nazis, or the Nazi government is invalid."
No, making the comparison to predict the future is invalid and, above all else, inflammatory.
"You hold this opinion because you're a conservative and American conservatives are in complete denial about the history of their political affiliation."
What an awful assumption. I'm not defending Bush, he's a terrible president, but he isn't significantly worse than some others we have had. The hyperbole isn't helpful in getting rid of him, if anything it lost Kerry the last election.
"American right-wingers have opposed every single civil rights measure in American history, from Miranda to birth control."
"So what happens when the law enforcers simply ignore the laws, the way Bush does?"
They get smacked down by the supreme court. Conservatives complain the supreme court is too liberal, liberals complain it's too conservative. That means it works just fine.
"Here's a scenario for you: The President decides he wants to push his agenda but he can't convince Congress to go along."
What do you mean, Congress is putting up a good show of a fight right now, then goes ahead and passes pretty much anything the President passes along. What does he need subterfuge for?
"Since you mention the Constitution, there are laws being passed as we speak (already passed this year and proposed right now) that dismantle and subvert the constitution."
Laws cannot dismantle the constitution, only constitutional amendments can. Stupid laws get passed all the time, mainly to increase the power of the state over it's citizens. Welcome to 20th/21st century USA.
"But as a matter of fact, there are direct links between Hitler, Hitler's financier and Prescott Bush, our current president's grandfather."
"Within a year you will hear this happen to an American blogger and many people will defend the action."
It happens all the time in all types of media. It doesn't matter as long as it's not the government suppressing speech. I can easily visit anarchist, communist, fascist, racist, theocratic, liberal, conservative, and UFO cult religion websites with impunity - where is the organized suppression of thought here? Then again, a lot of media outlets are making a heap of money skewering the Bush regime, maybe it's a conspiracy!:)
"Furthermore, the movement within the U.S. government has directly used tactics, imagery, phrases and ideas from fascist Germany in current times and it's directly related to the things that I'm talking about."
I'm not sure what "Movement" you are talking about, but the political tactics used by Germany have been around before Nietzsche and Machiavelli. I'm not saying it's right, but it certainly isn't a new development, or something indicating a swing toward fascism. http://www.fallacyfiles.org/genefall.html (Again)
"I call Bullshit on your pompous invocation of Godwin's law and ask that you at least dig around a bit before responding."
I did dig around and found that you are even more wrong than I originally thought. I suggest you link to websites that provide data to back your arguments, not to other people making the same argument as you.
First amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press"
Note the first word. It says Congress, not Youtube. You have no rights when playing on someone else's property. If you don't like playing by someone else's rules, run your blog from your own server, or somewhere else.
P.S. Reductio ad Hitlerum doesn't help your argument.
Google will probably see a return in the long run. I'm guessing that, next to HR, electricity is probably their second largest expense. Cheaper electricity == cheaper cost of operations. It's good for everybody, except companies that run coal power plants.
I'd rather have authors write the storylines to video games. Screenwriters specialize in storylines that are constrained by time, authors specialize in storylines that are, well, good.
At $100 million per mile, I can't see how these would be cost effective. I think the money would be better spent improving existing railway and bus infrastructure, and fixing traffic problems caused by poorly designed highways.
Of course, a comprehensive plan of improving infrastructure isn't nearly as sexy as a fancy, space-age flying train.
"Is this some kind of oblique FUD to attempt to build a stronger case for a nuclear power build-out in the US?"
FUD towards what? Saying coal or oil powered plants are dangerous would be FUD. Saying nuclear disasters are somewhat less fatal than previously thought is not.
"what a stunning coincidence that this oh-so-new interpretation of the data should come out right about the time the country is considering shifting to nuclear"
This article is from a German magazine, and the research was done by the GSF under the Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft foundation, Germany's version of the NSF. Are you referring to Germany as "the country?"
The article ends with "Still, there is no doubt that radiation poisoning remains ominous and highly dangerous."
Wow, that's some powerful FUD being thrown around right there. (Ominous is an odd translation of a German word, which means something close to ominous/foreboding/nasty/etc...)
Do you have any data or analysis countering their claims, or are you just making spurious arguments against their research?
You're right without realizing it! In the first half of the last century, engineers were pretty much required to learn German, because all the most cutting edge engineering was coming out of Germany. If you wanted to be on top of the latest in mechanical engineering, you needed to be able to read German technical journals. It wasn't inherently unfair, the Germans were just really good at engineering, and they weren't expected or morally required to print their journals in any other language.
Nobody is forcing anyone to use the US-based root servers or IP allocations. It seems like most of the people who don't like it are communications ministers from other countries, and organizations that just don't like the US much. I haven't heard a good technical argument against US administration yet, a few mildly compelling managerial arguments, and a bunch of awful political ones.
The Internet basically refers to a wide area network of computers connected by TCP/IP. ARPANET was the first network to operate on TCP/IP, which was also created by DARPA. The word "Internet" was coined to describe this type of network in RFC675. The modern internet sprang from NSFNET, a clone of ARPANET created by a few US universities. Sorry, the guts of the internet came from the US. That's why we run the thing.
The web was invented at CERN, so if you're Swiss you can be proud of that. It was an evolution of Gopher, however, which came from the University of Minnesota. Go gophers!:)
I don't think DRM is going to go away until a lot more people get burned by it in this way. Most people don't understand or care, once something like this rears up and bites them in the ass, the outrage machine will start. Thank you, MLB, for being the obnoxious, monopoly-driven organization we've all come to love to hate.
They aren't stealing, they are performing, or tweaking a public domain story, they then own that interpretation, or performance, of the story. For instance, Disney made a film of Peter Pan in 1953, however, there have been stage plays and live action versions of the story made without the need of Disney's permission.
It's the same with Robin Hood, which is a straight up folk tale. Anyone can make a movie, or even a cartoon, of Robin Hood. If you make an animated version where Robin Hood is a fox, Little John a bear, and prince John a lion, you're going to be in trouble.
This is the same principal as classical orchestras, or recorded classic music. Is a symphony orchestra stealing when you pay to hear them play Beethoven's 9th, since it's a public domain composition?
Slashdot Mirror
I don't remember exactly, but I think it was the original Space Invaders arcade game. My dad liked to play it, and would lift me up to use the controls. I remember seeing a poster at McDonald's that they were giving away Atari home computer systems - I thought it was the coolest thing in the world - being able to play space invaders at home. My parent's got me a really cheap all-in-one LCD "computer" that had a few basic spelling and music games. Then they got me the Timex Sinclair 1000 with flight simulator and the 16k expansion pack. THEN came the VIC-20, where I started to learn basic. I really got hooked on computers, though, when they took me to the local Hudson's, that had an enormous computer department. Everything from TI99/4s to Ataris to Commodores to Apple IIs, to a sweet demonstration IBM PC with a lucite case, to a Lisa. Lisa was the most insanely high tech thing I had ever seen - and got me hooked on Apples ever since.
* Getting a computer to recognize the difference between a toddler crawling on the road, versus a doll on the road.
This can be done, there are object classification algorithms that can make the determination, especially if the toddler is crawling.
* Seeing well in the rain.
This can be done using near-IR cameras, in fact they can see better than you probably could.
* Telling the difference between a dishwasher carton (which might not have to be braked for, versus a fallen cubic meter of rock.
No, you break for both. If ANYTHING substantial in size is in the road, you break, I know I wouldn't go blasting through a big cardboard box.
* Telling the difference between a solid object and just a splash of water.
This one is easy using two cameras to get a 3d picture, or if you want to get fancy you could use LIDAR.
Keep in mind, this isn't the DARPA challenge. For the most part, roads are known quantities, and a good path following and obstacle avoidance package combined with an accurate GPS system would make this entirely feasable.
It should have been a Corvette instead of the secretary's car. It could have been a Viper, but that was already done.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viper_(TV_series)
Really, KITT is supposed to be a super-futuristic badass assault car. An aftermarket-tuned retro-muscle car doesn't cut it.
Why was a concept car even in consideration for the list (referenced in the Tesla section.) GM says 2010 for production, there's a working prototype, what makes it vapor?
There is TONs of material with which to make a sequel, or prequel, or whatever. There's The Silmarillion, jammed with history and various tales. The recently published The Children of Húrin, recounting the very early history of Middle Earth. They could go into detail about the attack on Dol Guldur, which took place during the Hobbit.
The one thing Peter Jackson doesn't have to worry about is lack of stories set in Middle Earth, the biggest job is to choose which one.
I remember seeing one, in all places, at a sales booth at the state fair. They looked like something out of star trek, the games were crazy looking for the time. The price was steep for a videogame console, I ended up getting a VIC-20.
I *almost* got a FZ8, it's fantastic in every respect but one - the sensors and Venus processor are NOISY in all but bright light. This is a huge dealbreaker, noise is one thing you can't post-process out effectively. I ended up getting an older Fuji - not quite as nice but very low noise. It takes beautiful pics.
As far as I know, all the communications devices I own have an off switch. I use them frequently.
There are quite a few comparisons out there of lossy audio quality across multiple music types and listeners. LAME encoding MP3 usually comes out on top for higher bitrate lossy compression, followed by Vorbis. Vorbis comes out better at lower compression rates, but AAC is close.
Vorbis is an excellent compressor, but LAME often beats it, mainly because it's a very mature codebase and it's psychoacoustic model has been tweaked to near perfection. Vorbis can get there - but it'll take time. What's really hurting Vorbis is the lack of support in iTunes/iPods - the most popular players out there. If Vorbis was available on this platform, you'd see a lot more interest in development, I think.
I've ripped all of my CDs to FLAC, then transcode to MP3 as needed for our iPods.
"Apple still faces two lawsuits in the US from people alleging that preventing users unlocking their iPhones is an unreasonable restriction of consumer choice."
:)
I'm sorry, but it's a friggin' cell phone. If you don't like the terms of service then don't buy one. I don't like AT&T so I'm not getting one.
Verizon, on the other hand, is opening up their network and embracing Android, which will hopefully start up the unlocked cell phone market in earnest. Shrewd move on Verizon's part, this will turn up the heat on the exclusivity contract between Apple and AT&T.
I don't use either service, so I don't particularly care
Wow, Symbolics was ahead of the curve. Too bad their hardware cost and arm and a leg.
I don't remember the fist web site I visited - but I remember it was using Lynx. I used gopher all the time, though. Turbogopher ran a lot better on the Mac LC3s at the University computer lab than the pre-beta of Mosaic.
"Godwin's Law is bullshit. If one picks comparable attributes it is perfectly reasonable to compare people and governments to Hitler and the Nazi movement."
What rhetorical purpose does comparing 1930s Nazi Germany with the USA in 2000 fulfill? You can find similarities between any two random civilizations, unless you are comparing very specific societal effects, making generalizations are useless beyond throwing firebombs into a conversation.
"The fallacy YOU'RE engaging in is: "Any comparison of right-wing American political leaders to Hitler, Nazis, or the Nazi government is invalid."
No, making the comparison to predict the future is invalid and, above all else, inflammatory.
"You hold this opinion because you're a conservative and American conservatives are in complete denial about the history of their political affiliation."
What an awful assumption. I'm not defending Bush, he's a terrible president, but he isn't significantly worse than some others we have had. The hyperbole isn't helpful in getting rid of him, if anything it lost Kerry the last election.
"American right-wingers have opposed every single civil rights measure in American history, from Miranda to birth control."
Are you for real?
http://hnn.us/articles/5331.html
"So what happens when the law enforcers simply ignore the laws, the way Bush does?"
They get smacked down by the supreme court. Conservatives complain the supreme court is too liberal, liberals complain it's too conservative. That means it works just fine.
"Here's a scenario for you: The President decides he wants to push his agenda but he can't convince Congress to go along."
What do you mean, Congress is putting up a good show of a fight right now, then goes ahead and passes pretty much anything the President passes along. What does he need subterfuge for?
"I guess you didn't read my post or any of the information I linked."
:)
No, I didn't read Woolf's book or listen to her speech. I've heard the arguments a dozen times before. You pick a few conditions leading up to Nazi Germany, then compare them to the current administration's policies. It's sloppily researched propaganda. See here:
http://www.amazon.com/review/product/1933392797/ref=cm_cr_dp_synop?_encoding=UTF8&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending#R28W0R1KUAZR0H
And here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_sharpshooter_fallacy
"Germany was a parliamentary democracy, fairly liberal and very similar to the U.S. today."
No, it was pretty friggin far from the current state of the US. For one, unemployment in Germany was at a staggeringly high 30% in 1932. It's at about 4.5% in the US currently, trending down in the last four years. I bet if you do a little more research, you could find other, rather significant, ways 1930 Germany != 2000 USA. Unless, of course, you are only looking for similarities.
http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?request_action=wh&graph_name=LN_cpsbref3
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERunemployment.htm
"Since you mention the Constitution, there are laws being passed as we speak (already passed this year and proposed right now) that dismantle and subvert the constitution."
Laws cannot dismantle the constitution, only constitutional amendments can. Stupid laws get passed all the time, mainly to increase the power of the state over it's citizens. Welcome to 20th/21st century USA.
"But as a matter of fact, there are direct links between Hitler, Hitler's financier and Prescott Bush, our current president's grandfather."
That's nice, what does it have to do with anything?
http://www.fallacyfiles.org/genefall.html
More or less.
"Within a year you will hear this happen to an American blogger and many people will defend the action."
It happens all the time in all types of media. It doesn't matter as long as it's not the government suppressing speech. I can easily visit anarchist, communist, fascist, racist, theocratic, liberal, conservative, and UFO cult religion websites with impunity - where is the organized suppression of thought here? Then again, a lot of media outlets are making a heap of money skewering the Bush regime, maybe it's a conspiracy!
"Furthermore, the movement within the U.S. government has directly used tactics, imagery, phrases and ideas from fascist Germany in current times and it's directly related to the things that I'm talking about."
I'm not sure what "Movement" you are talking about, but the political tactics used by Germany have been around before Nietzsche and Machiavelli. I'm not saying it's right, but it certainly isn't a new development, or something indicating a swing toward fascism.
http://www.fallacyfiles.org/genefall.html
(Again)
"I call Bullshit on your pompous invocation of Godwin's law and ask that you at least dig around a bit before responding."
I did dig around and found that you are even more wrong than I originally thought. I suggest you link to websites that provide data to back your arguments, not to other people making the same argument as you.
http://www.fallacyfiles.org/authorit.html
I suggest you read Chomsky, he does some halfway decent research and uses citations, even if his conclusions are utterly wrong.
First amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press"
Note the first word. It says Congress, not Youtube. You have no rights when playing on someone else's property. If you don't like playing by someone else's rules, run your blog from your own server, or somewhere else.
P.S. Reductio ad Hitlerum doesn't help your argument.
Google will probably see a return in the long run. I'm guessing that, next to HR, electricity is probably their second largest expense. Cheaper electricity == cheaper cost of operations. It's good for everybody, except companies that run coal power plants.
I'd rather have authors write the storylines to video games. Screenwriters specialize in storylines that are constrained by time, authors specialize in storylines that are, well, good.
At $100 million per mile, I can't see how these would be cost effective. I think the money would be better spent improving existing railway and bus infrastructure, and fixing traffic problems caused by poorly designed highways.
Of course, a comprehensive plan of improving infrastructure isn't nearly as sexy as a fancy, space-age flying train.
Now that there isn't an ODF, Inc, who is in charge of the format? I'm assuming it's the OpenOffice developers, isn't it?
"Is this some kind of oblique FUD to attempt to build a stronger case for a nuclear power build-out in the US?"
FUD towards what? Saying coal or oil powered plants are dangerous would be FUD. Saying nuclear disasters are somewhat less fatal than previously thought is not.
"what a stunning coincidence that this oh-so-new interpretation of the data should come out right about the time the country is considering shifting to nuclear"
This article is from a German magazine, and the research was done by the GSF under the Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft foundation, Germany's version of the NSF. Are you referring to Germany as "the country?"
The article ends with "Still, there is no doubt that radiation poisoning remains ominous and highly dangerous."
Wow, that's some powerful FUD being thrown around right there. (Ominous is an odd translation of a German word, which means something close to ominous/foreboding/nasty/etc...)
Do you have any data or analysis countering their claims, or are you just making spurious arguments against their research?
You're right without realizing it! In the first half of the last century, engineers were pretty much required to learn German, because all the most cutting edge engineering was coming out of Germany. If you wanted to be on top of the latest in mechanical engineering, you needed to be able to read German technical journals. It wasn't inherently unfair, the Germans were just really good at engineering, and they weren't expected or morally required to print their journals in any other language.
Nobody is forcing anyone to use the US-based root servers or IP allocations. It seems like most of the people who don't like it are communications ministers from other countries, and organizations that just don't like the US much. I haven't heard a good technical argument against US administration yet, a few mildly compelling managerial arguments, and a bunch of awful political ones.
The Internet basically refers to a wide area network of computers connected by TCP/IP. ARPANET was the first network to operate on TCP/IP, which was also created by DARPA. The word "Internet" was coined to describe this type of network in RFC675. The modern internet sprang from NSFNET, a clone of ARPANET created by a few US universities. Sorry, the guts of the internet came from the US. That's why we run the thing.
:)
The web was invented at CERN, so if you're Swiss you can be proud of that. It was an evolution of Gopher, however, which came from the University of Minnesota. Go gophers!
Not being a flop and being a success are two different things :)
Has Dvorak ever predicted that *anything* would be a success?
I don't think DRM is going to go away until a lot more people get burned by it in this way. Most people don't understand or care, once something like this rears up and bites them in the ass, the outrage machine will start. Thank you, MLB, for being the obnoxious, monopoly-driven organization we've all come to love to hate.
They aren't stealing, they are performing, or tweaking a public domain story, they then own that interpretation, or performance, of the story. For instance, Disney made a film of Peter Pan in 1953, however, there have been stage plays and live action versions of the story made without the need of Disney's permission.
It's the same with Robin Hood, which is a straight up folk tale. Anyone can make a movie, or even a cartoon, of Robin Hood. If you make an animated version where Robin Hood is a fox, Little John a bear, and prince John a lion, you're going to be in trouble.
This is the same principal as classical orchestras, or recorded classic music. Is a symphony orchestra stealing when you pay to hear them play Beethoven's 9th, since it's a public domain composition?