Alexa is way better than Siri at speech-to-text. Siri has one microphone. Alexa has an array of four to seven microphones (depending on the model) which makes it way easier to focus on a single voice and tune out background noise.
But the biggest problem is not speech-to-text, but the semantic understanding of the text. That will require GP-AI, and is still a long way off.
Mark Weiser predicted the smart phone (and the tablet) in 1988, and also predicted much of the technology that would make them work. He coined the term Ubiquitous computing.
He was a visionary (and a coding wizard). Unfortunately he died in 1999, so never got to see his complete vision fulfilled. RIP Mark.
You know someone lacks imagination about the future when they miss the bus and wish they had a Star Trek transporter so they could beam themselves to the next bus stop.
Serial processing speeding up so much that no-one thought easy parallel programs were worth the bother?
No. We have plenty of parallelism in modern computing, with threading, multiple cores, GPGPU, and clusters. The problem is that Occam used the wrong model: Private memory and slow interconnects based on message passing. What happened in the actual future timeline was symmetric multiprocessing with shared memory, and even shared L3 cache.
There's an old saying: good fences make good neighbors, and good neighbors build good fences.
You are misinterpreting the "old saying". It is from Mending Wall, a poem by Robert Frost. His neighbor says "Good fences make good neighbors." But the point of the poem is that the fence actually serves no real purpose at all, and is a barrier between two people who would likely be better friends without the fence.
Nice, then we need to expand and enhance ICE and get unconstitutional "sanctuary State/city" laws tossed... More ICE for everyone!
Or we could just legalize drugs. If a law isn't working, sometimes the solution is to repeal it rather than to pile on more laws, police, and walls. Just a thought.
yet where is all that outrage when the US is spending TRILLIONS of dollars in the never ending conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, etc. etc. ?
There was plenty of outrage. Probably more than on any other issue since Vietnam. But most of those trillions are already spent, or are being spent on things like disability pay and long term care of wounded that are unavoidable. The on-going cost of out small remaining footprint is not much.
Besides, opposition to "The Wall" is not about it being expensive, but about it being stupid. I would oppose it even if Mexico really was paying for it. We should have cooperation and positive engagement with our neighbors. A wall is the opposite of that.
The murder statistics are nonsense. Saying "Mexicans murder people in America, therefore we should have a wall", is as silly as saying "Californians murder people in Nevada, therefore we should have a wall".
You must be too young to remember all the bombings and hijackings of the 60's and 70's.
Those occurred when there was NO screening. Then the airlines implemented security screening, and the problem mostly disappeared.
Then 9/11 happened, and the feds took over. The cost doubled, and the delays tripled. Yet the TSA does no better on penetration tests than the private security firms they replaced.
The TSA should be abolished, and airport security should be re-privatized.
Of course this also means that you'd be liable for everything the bot does.
Not true. Many laws require violations to have "intent". Libel is one of these (at least in America). If your bot says something false and defamatory due to a programming oversight, the programmer is NOT guilty of libel because there was no intent.
You can't have one without the other.
Yes you can. Rights are inherent. They are not something you "earn".
My guess is he wants to cull the bottom performers and a "lay off" is the tech way to do this.
If he just wanted to trim deadwood, there would be no need for a big public announcement that damages employee morale and raises questions about he company's future.
The only reason for this to be done publicly is to make a show for wavering investors.
1. My job requires me to go. 2. The food is fantastic. 3. The girls are really cute.
They can arrest you just because they feel like it and you don't have any recourse. Not my idea of fun.
An American is four times more likely to be arrested and incarcerated.
China is very safe. Just don't stick you nose into local politics, and you are not going to have any problem. This is a good idea when visiting any country.
Slashdot Mirror
Declination needs to be changed every year by serious navigators.
Serious navigators use GPS, which is a gazillion times more accurate than figuring out where you are with a compass and sextant.
Homes today are 1000 sq ft larger than in 1973
Alexa is way better than Siri at speech-to-text. Siri has one microphone. Alexa has an array of four to seven microphones (depending on the model) which makes it way easier to focus on a single voice and tune out background noise.
But the biggest problem is not speech-to-text, but the semantic understanding of the text. That will require GP-AI, and is still a long way off.
Nobody predicted the modern smart phone.
Mark Weiser predicted the smart phone (and the tablet) in 1988, and also predicted much of the technology that would make them work. He coined the term Ubiquitous computing.
He was a visionary (and a coding wizard). Unfortunately he died in 1999, so never got to see his complete vision fulfilled. RIP Mark.
Personally I can't even imagine owning the kind of houses my parents could afford back then.
Modern houses in America are, on average, about twice the size they were in the 1960s. Meanwhile families are about half the size.
The reason housing is less affordable is because you are getting much more of it.
You know someone lacks imagination about the future when they miss the bus and wish they had a Star Trek transporter so they could beam themselves to the next bus stop.
Serial processing speeding up so much that no-one thought easy parallel programs were worth the bother?
No. We have plenty of parallelism in modern computing, with threading, multiple cores, GPGPU, and clusters. The problem is that Occam used the wrong model: Private memory and slow interconnects based on message passing. What happened in the actual future timeline was symmetric multiprocessing with shared memory, and even shared L3 cache.
I'd love to see a map of dividing a sphere into 20 squares.
They were non-Euclidean squares.
There's an old saying: good fences make good neighbors, and good neighbors build good fences.
You are misinterpreting the "old saying". It is from Mending Wall, a poem by Robert Frost. His neighbor says "Good fences make good neighbors." But the point of the poem is that the fence actually serves no real purpose at all, and is a barrier between two people who would likely be better friends without the fence.
But don't worry, you are in good company. Sarah Palin also completely missed the point.
I fully support this bill, so long as there is a strict 'No Capture receipt is issued" requirement.
So everyone in the checkout line has to re-enter their email address for every purchase? That is silly.
The e-receipts that I receive are automatically tied to either my credit card or my phone. Swipe, tap, done.
In practice, 99% of these cash registers do not support email
I get e-receipts from Walmart and Home Depot.
If they can do it, why can't others?
Nice, then we need to expand and enhance ICE and get unconstitutional "sanctuary State/city" laws tossed... More ICE for everyone!
Or we could just legalize drugs. If a law isn't working, sometimes the solution is to repeal it rather than to pile on more laws, police, and walls. Just a thought.
yet where is all that outrage when the US is spending TRILLIONS of dollars in the never ending conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, etc. etc. ?
There was plenty of outrage. Probably more than on any other issue since Vietnam. But most of those trillions are already spent, or are being spent on things like disability pay and long term care of wounded that are unavoidable. The on-going cost of out small remaining footprint is not much.
Besides, opposition to "The Wall" is not about it being expensive, but about it being stupid. I would oppose it even if Mexico really was paying for it. We should have cooperation and positive engagement with our neighbors. A wall is the opposite of that.
i can't speak to the murder statistics
The murder statistics are nonsense. Saying "Mexicans murder people in America, therefore we should have a wall", is as silly as saying "Californians murder people in Nevada, therefore we should have a wall".
Illegal immigration does not increase violent crime
Mexican immigrants are LESS likely to commit violent crimes than native born Americans
You must be too young to remember all the bombings and hijackings of the 60's and 70's.
Those occurred when there was NO screening. Then the airlines implemented security screening, and the problem mostly disappeared.
Then 9/11 happened, and the feds took over. The cost doubled, and the delays tripled. Yet the TSA does no better on penetration tests than the private security firms they replaced.
The TSA should be abolished, and airport security should be re-privatized.
Of course this also means that you'd be liable for everything the bot does.
Not true. Many laws require violations to have "intent". Libel is one of these (at least in America). If your bot says something false and defamatory due to a programming oversight, the programmer is NOT guilty of libel because there was no intent.
You can't have one without the other.
Yes you can. Rights are inherent. They are not something you "earn".
When the user of a press prints and distributes a pamphlet, everyone knows it is a pamphlet.
When a user runs a bot to distribute a text message, everyone knows it is a text message.
My guess is he wants to cull the bottom performers and a "lay off" is the tech way to do this.
If he just wanted to trim deadwood, there would be no need for a big public announcement that damages employee morale and raises questions about he company's future.
The only reason for this to be done publicly is to make a show for wavering investors.
Why would someone even want to go to China?
1. My job requires me to go.
2. The food is fantastic.
3. The girls are really cute.
They can arrest you just because they feel like it and you don't have any recourse. Not my idea of fun.
An American is four times more likely to be arrested and incarcerated.
China is very safe. Just don't stick you nose into local politics, and you are not going to have any problem. This is a good idea when visiting any country.
Unless there has been a very recent change (doubtful), WhatsApp does not work in China.
WeChat is nearly universal. It is used for way more than just messaging. You can't buy rice without it.
Just Antarctica + Greenland is already way over 5%. Vast areas of Siberia, Alaska, and Nunavut are uninhabited wilderness.
I would like to see a better explanation of their methodology.
The violence frightened good people out of our communities, and left us with a mostly desolate wasteland for years.
The same thing happened in Detroit following the 1967 riots. Businesses closed, whites fled, taking their tax dollars with them.
would those jobs even exist if they were privately held? Are those actions profit generators?
Prior to 9/11, airport security was run by private businesses.
After the TSA took over, the cost doubled, and delays tripled, Penetration testing showed no improvement.
Chooseco has no IP granting them exclusive rights to the concept of a choose your own adventure.
Yet they do have IP granting them exclusive rights to their own trademark.
Isn't there such a thing as fair use.
No, not for trademarks. You are thinking of copyright, which has nothing to do with this dispute.