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User: tiluki

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Comments · 45

  1. Re:Whiskey? on Ultrasound Machine Ages Wine · · Score: 1

    Perhaps we are at cross purposes concerning the use of the "spirit safe":

    http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usfeatures/maltwhisky/spiritsafe.html

    Or, the "angels share"?

    http://www.adramintime.co.uk/adramintime/angel.php

    (All that whisky, just evaporating... the horror).

    [sip] Back to my 25yr old An Knoc [/sip]

  2. Re:If I were stranded on a deserted island... on Why Windows Solitaire Eats So Much Time · · Score: 1

    And apparently the creator of Solitaire - Wes Cherry - would like nothing better to pass the time on a desert island than "Robotron 2084"...

    Full interview for those who missed it:

    http://b3ta.com/interview/solitaire/

  3. For more details, consult... on The P.G. Wodehouse Method of Refactoring · · Score: 1
  4. Re:It could be worse on Asteroid Mission Competition Announces Winner · · Score: 1

    Or, as Burns would have it:

    ``In proving foresight may be vain: The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley.''

  5. Re:I've NOT got Wood on World's Most Powerful Rail Gun Delivered to US Navy · · Score: 1

    Just a shame they test it in Scotland then - with lots of lovely depleted uranium. Aye, it's braw stuff. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3148853.stm

    Let us rewind:

    And may, I draw you attention to this http://www.dtic.mil/ndia/2004armaments/DayII/SessionI/01_Cilli_EM_Gun.pdf. Slides 12/13 are particularly interesting... ("use their test facility at no cost to US")

  6. Who would win? on Industrial Robot Arm Becomes Giant Catapult · · Score: 1

    The robot, or Warwolf?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warwolf

  7. But will it run on Linux.? on Mac Version of NaturallySpeaking Launched · · Score: 1

    Seriously though, is it just me or is speech recognition support still sadly lacking under all current distros?

    Based on the fact there are no leading edge projects out there. I mean, apart from IBM's ViaVoice a few years back (and now no more), and the CMU Sphinx project http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.net/html/cmusphinx.php is there any other Linux/FOSS solution?

  8. Here we go again... on Cracking Go · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It is, and never will be, a question of optimisation - no matter how stochastic, fuzzy, or hardware based. Chess was only "solved" in this way - it wasn't solved the way we actually play it.

    Go... is all about pattern matching.

    The tigers mouth, the ladder, the bamboo joint, the turn... that's how I play.

    Just as the brain makes sense of our world. We make sense of go through the patterns we see.

    And no - I don't mean just throw a ANN at it:-) And yet, something stirs in the heart of AI... Something within the new approaches to statistical pattern matching...

    No, it ain't solved yet!

  9. Re:Slashdot Effect on A Brief History of Slashdot Part 1, Chips & Dips · · Score: 1

    Course we did.

    As soon as all the geeks round here see "yadda, yadda... Slashdot 10 year anniversary party"!!!! the next thought has got to be:

    Will there be beer?

    Followed by:

    Will there be chicks?

    And:

    Will it be in a dark basement similar to mine?

    Talk about a stampede...

  10. Re:Sing... on MTV to Invest Over $500 Million in Video Games · · Score: 1

    And how about:

    "Bruce Springstien, Madonna
    Way before Nirvana
    There was U2 and Blondie
    And music still on MTV
    Her two kids in high school
    They tell her that she's uncool
    Cuz she's still preoccupied
    With 19, 19, 1985"

    (Courtesy of Bowling For Soup - although I prefer the Richard Thompson version:-)

  11. Re:Call me off-topic but on 1935 Meccano "Dam Busters" Computer Restored · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yes, a very sad loss. I was not sure anyone (surprisingly) on Slashdot picked this up.

    I was privileged to attend his final talk the week before, given at Edinburgh. The video is now actually available here (for a while): http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/events/jamboree/2007/

    This was absolutely fascinating, and I listened spellbound for an hour and a half. Do not be misled by the title as it covered much of the early development of AI in Britain (not just at Edinburgh). Analogous with the actual topic of this story, it details another, very early "physical computer" MENACE - constructed of matchboxes and beads.

    A fuller obituary (that goes way beyond his short involvement with Turing) is here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituarie s/article2061886.ece

    Truly a great pioneer and inspiration for us modern researchers in AI.

  12. Re:Cool on Vacation Photos That Inform Instead of Bore · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The "LiveLabs Preview" - i.e. actual application to try out - is actually here: http://labs.live.com/photosynth/

    Strangely enough, works only in a Windows browser...

    Of course based on actual research into "Photo-tourism" by Noah Snavely et al. (note his supervisor is Richard Szeliski, explaining the M$ connection:-)

    Got to hand it to them, this only backs up what some people have said for a while about taking Computer Vision research and throwing a proper development teams at it (c.f. Boujou). Result: one cool product.

  13. Re:parts 3 and 4 on Lucas To Make New Live Action Star Wars Films · · Score: 1

    Already been done I'm afraid: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087225/

    Was known as "Caravan of Courage" in the UK (not the sort you get stuck behind in narrow country lanes on bank holidays - but basically the wearying effect:-)

  14. Eta Carinae on Powerful Supernova May Be Related To Death Spasms of First Stars · · Score: 5, Interesting
    What is more impressive about this story is the footnote of similar activity recently exhibited by Eta Carinae - a much closer star to us (well, 7500 light years). To quote the BBC article http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6633609.stm:

    Dave Pooley, at the University of California at Berkeley, said if Eta Carinae were to explode "it would be so bright that you would see it during the day, and you could even read a book by its light at night". Eta Carinae's death could be "the most spectacular star show in history." Is it just me, or does that sound a little bit too close...
  15. Edinburgh to Glasgow... on Japan to Launch Maglev Trains by 2025 · · Score: 1

    Funnily enough, this other story was out last week: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_we st/6577311.stm?ls So, at least one other "push" to use the technology for the public good. Sure, it might (see probably) not happen, but it would be great to travel from the East to West coast of Scotland in 15 minutes!

  16. Re:And? on Encouraging Students to Drop Mathematics · · Score: 1

    Fair enough - but on further looking at the same spreadsheet I discovered that mathematics was the first most popular subject at optional Advanced Higher (i.e. at least A-level and first year Uni level) over 2005 and 2006. Miles ahead of Chemistry, Biology, English then Physics (but Maths has the lowest pass rates).

    Just something I never knew myself until this article prompted me to go look:-) What it seems certain to me now is that the original claim of the BBC story is total rubbish - at least in Scotland (i.e. there is no abandoning of traditional "hard" science subjects for nebulous ones). But then, the article was about A-level's, and perhaps policy is changing in the more competitive market (since when did education become that) down south...

  17. Re:And? on Encouraging Students to Drop Mathematics · · Score: 1

    Interestingly enough the statistics from the Scottish Qualifications Authority http://www.sqa.org.uk/ reveal that Higher mathematics was the second most popular subject (after English) taken in 2005 and 2006 thus:


    2005 2006 A B C Passes D No Award Pass Rate 05 Pass Rate 06

    19,173 18,533 4,443 4,307 3,956 12,706 1,617 4210 67.8% 68.6%


    (Taken from pre-appeals 2006 results spreadsheet from http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/controller?p_service=Con tent.show&p_applic=CCC&pContentID=14830)

    So, maths is going strong in Scotland - and it ain't too easy (or maybe we're just more stupid to fail at a reasonable rate, or at least not at a rate that goes up every year...).

  18. Late. As in the late Adams-Douglas-Adams. on 1979 Interview With Douglas Adams · · Score: 1

    Remembered seeing him at the 1999 JavaOne conference (anyone else?). Did that anecdote about eating the biscuits of the guy opposite from him at the train station. One of the best key-notes I've *ever* been to.

  19. Lena on Recognizing Scenes Like the Brain Does · · Score: 1

    Like any worthy vision paper, it includes images of Lena!

    http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~chuck/lennapg/lenna.shtml

  20. Re:Truly a Miracle on Father of Instant Ramen Passes Away · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ramen to that!

  21. Re:bling - goldie lookin chain maybe? on Review: Nerdcore Hip-Hop Compilation CD Project · · Score: 1

    Maybe you mean something like: http://images.google.co.uk/images?svnum=10&hl=en&l r=&q=goldie+looking+chain&btnG=Search

    And then consider some of the lyrics to "Half Man, Half Machine": http://www.lyricsdomain.com/7/goldie_lookin_chain/ half_man_half_machine.html

    (Any song that mentions a ZX-81 is pretty frinkin nerdcore in my book!)

  22. Re:scalable? - Check out "spore"! on What if Game Graphics Never Aged? · · Score: 1

    Hmmm. Yes, procedural "generation" - not just graphics - but behaviour, physics, and (basically) the rules of the game!

    There has been alot of hype about "Spore" recently...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_(game)

    And the official site is just recently online:

    http://www.spore.com/

    Now, I'm personally rather excited about this. I think it'll really bring out the "open-ended" nature of gaming to a whole new level...

    One that, lets face it, has been around a while - "user based asset creation". AKA modding (but, with the twist of doing this while actually playing the game!!!)

    Think I'll have a sit down...

  23. Re:Video Review at CNet - Get a "new" libretto! on First Look at Sony's Tiny Vaio UX180p · · Score: 1

    Yeah - the Libretto is great...

    That's why I went and got a second-hand one off of Ebay and put Linux on it!

    http://librettoalive.blogspot.com/

    OK, so I'm still tinkering with it, but it's great! Very portable and fast enough to run X (although I must admit I use it mostly as a terminal with display on the framebuffer).

  24. Neds! on Gangs on the Internet · · Score: 1

    Trying to "read between the lines" of some of the Ned sites (Scottish youth subculture) isn't exactly hard - you only have to decypher what they're actually trying to write in the first place!

    See: http://www.glasgowsurvival.co.uk/reviews/reviews.h tml [WARNING - maybe not best to view at work, or if you have an abhorence of complete numpties]

    "Pure mental!" as they say. Yes... right...

  25. Re:Nationality on Americans Are Seriously Sick · · Score: 1
    I think you'll find that the Scots are also distinct from England in terms of language, history/culture, genetic makeup, parliament, seperate church, legal system, currency, etc. etc.

    And, unfortunately, one of Europes worst health records. Even with the new smoking ban. Which is why I think this study is indeed comparing England to the US.

    Northern Ireland similarly. Furthermore, even within England - each region is very distinctive (c.f. the North with Devon/Cornwall).