Sorry but you could not be more wrong... I have to bite my tongue and deal with it I guess but consider this:
It's not impossible to create a symbolic point-and-click interface if you really wanted to. And I suppose that language-agnostic applications might be another good use for the "metaverse." This still doesn't change the fact that an interface designed to emulate real life has most of the disadvantages of real life as well. It's also not too usable on mobile devices with small screens and slow connections. But as I said, it does have its uses. Just not as a replacement for the textual Web.
Damn, all this world needs is another 5,000 people in blue suits.
It's OK, I'm releasing 5,000 'bots in ninja suits to show their kung-fu skills. "My kid beat up your honor student." Oh, and a few dozen Daleks to randomly roll around and exterminate things...
Never-the-less interacting with digital representations of physical objects is a lot more intuitive than 'click this' or 'click that' blah blah blah that you get on current websites. Consider the possibility of an integration of something like SecondLife with something like Google Earth and replace all those web servers on the Internet with 'web servers' that can model the objects and then you would truly have the real Web 2.0.
The "clicking" interface is actually pretty consistent, unlike a simulation of real life where you have to explore to find stuff. And clicking/searching around is actually a pretty fast way to deal with a lot of textual/photographic information. Second Life interposes most of the inefficiencies of "real life" onto the Internet, and is a parallel niche, not a replacement. And, yes, it's good for some things -- companies that build things like cars or houses could have a presence to show their wares, and it's may even be good for some types of training (I've heard of it being used for EMT training).
However, for socializing? No thanks -- I'd rather either talk to someone on the phone, use text chat and do other things as well, or, best of all, go out and DO something. Something sterile and contrived like Second Life can't replace real human interaction. For business? Maybe in a limited set of cases, but face-to-face still is best, or you can use voice chat or online chat (which allow you to multi-task).
If you could have truly automated robotic avatars, things might get interesting, but then again, what's the advantage over a Web page for most tasks?
It emulates a world, and it requires undivided (or nearly so) attention while being "in" the world. The Internet and Internet messaging media are very useful _because_ you can multi-task whilst using them. Second Life/Metaverses/whatever seem like they'd be *more* time consuming than operating in the real world.
To each one his own, but if I were going to own a condo/apartment, I'd do so in NYC or Brooklyn. For the same price that you can get a condo in NJ for (~$300-350k) you can get a house in the less-nice parts of Morristown, Union, or whatever. Sure it'll require some work, but at least you're not beholden to a bunch of overaged prisses in the condo association!
Why do I suddenly have the feeling that the relationships between the USA and China are gonna get better...
Yeah, China too. Wouldn't it have been nice for them if the shooting of Tianeman Square could have been confined to the basement of police headquarters at close range rather than out in the streets for every Western reporter to point at?
If bush had that many of the american population able to go to war what do you think he'd do?
Make the draft process truly random and hard to get out of. If congresspeople's sons are going to go abroad, they'll be less likely to vote for a war. And make it a constitutional requirement to have a Congressional vote of something like 90% affirmative before being allowed to deploy troops abroad.
If Americans aren't willing to pick up their guns and police their borders properly then I don't see how you can complain that the government isn't giving the task their full attention.
Actually, I'd prefer if the US worked on the Swiss system. A citizens' militia in which service is mandatory, designed to defend the country against invasion and attack. Every citizen (or at least a large proportion) should be alert, vigilant and trained. Alternatives to military service like disaster cleanup, teaching, and police work should also be allowed. This military should be strictly defensive -- we should cease our abuse of countries outside our borders (which would go a long way towards preventing terrorism in itself!).
For Americans, and people accustomed to reading about oppression in the US while seeing Europe as 'enlightened' and 'humanistic', it might interest them to hear about incidents that collide with that view. If hearing about incidents that collide with your view is a good in itself.
Yep, Western European countries can be pretty bad. See also, preemptive arrests of suspected "football hooligans" before matches. No charges, no trials, just hold them until the match is over and they can no longer do damage. Much of eastern Europe is, IMHO, still better, if only because (a) they have memories of repressive dictatorships and DON'T want to go back to that and (b) there's not enough money to maintain strong police forces.
After all, it's only guilty people that get arrested, right? Innocent people never get stopped and detained, do they?
Furthermore, not everyone who happens to be in the street (or looking out of their flat window at a commotion) is even necessarily involved in what's going on with the police. But, yeah, the presumption of guilt just because someone gets arrested is rather appalling.
BTW, do you think that those toys will stay in the hands of Homeland Security?
Nah, they'll be sold to our Middle Eastern "allies", Israel, various African states, etc, to further the cause of repression. Once industry gets a hold of this, it _will_ be sold to the highest bidder. And just because it's "non-lethal" doesn't mean that the people arrested with use of this won't be beaten or shot behind closed doors after being arrested. Blood in the streets makes for bad PR for any government, dictatorships included. Blood behind closed doors is out of sight, out of mind, sadly.
How would you like to have a dialogue with rioters, looters or angry mobs?
Can't speak for looters, but rioters and angry mobs often have a good reason to be angry, and repressing them will just cause things to blow up completely eventually. Keep in mind that without "angry mobs" and "rioters" most of Eastern Europe would still be crying under the Russian boot.
I'm betting that this technology will be sold by us to some of our most repressive so-called friends.
In beachfront NJ, there is even a town owned by a church and restricts it's beach to residents and by day of week (no swimming on Sunday )[Ocean Grove, north of Bradley Beach and south of Asbury Park]!
AFAIK, none of this is true anymore. My family had a house there until ca. 2000. The beach opens later on Sundays -- 12:30 or so, but is still open, and swimming is perfectly legal. And no one would boot you off the beach if you went there earlier -- it was technically illegal, and there were no lifeguards, but no one cared much.
As far as the residents-only thing, you can just buy beach badges -- I don't think they ever carded anyone to buy a badge. Restricting the beach to residents would mean losing tourist money, and it's a very tourist-y sort of place.
Some of the best things about Spanish beaches are the beach parties, plenty of booze, music, drunk people. Excellent.
Americans tend to be rather puritanical about alcohol and in general -- remember that we were founded by the people that England kicked out for being too conservative:P. NJ and NYC actually are less strict than many other parts of the country -- there are whole counties in the South where alcohol is entirely illegal (enforced to differing degrees depending on where you are).
All the trains, commuter and Amtrak, should also offer free public wireless service.
Why don't we concentrate on having frequent, inexpensive, and fast train service first? There are quite a few train routes in Poland which are almost as fast as the American "high speed" BOS-WAS trains -- using 1950s equipment and loks. The American passenger rail network is a national disgrace, currently.
I don't know about OC, NJ, but a lot of towns close their beaches at night
They're free after 5 pm or so, but before dark, so you have another few hours of free beach time usually. As far as closure at night, as long as you're not doing anything too obnoxious, most towns could care less from my experience.
Much of the Jersey Shore consists of housing associations. Each block or street forms their own corporation (i.e. ABC Beach Housing Association, Inc), complete with a board of directors.
There are some even odder setups down the shore. My family used to own a house in a town called Ocean Grove, which was a small town originally created as a Methodist resort in the 1890s, near Asbury Park. It was eventually incorporated into a town called Neptune, but was basically a single private property owned by the church, and people had to pay a nominal lease of something like $10/yr to continue to use their land.
BTW, having lived in NJ all my life, I can assure you that no one goes "to the beach"; it's called going "down the shore".
I thought going "down the shore" was more like going to a shore town. Going to the beach, is... well... going to the actual beach from wherever you're staying.
You might want to re-examine that. Excluding housing, NJ cost of living is higher than CA. Total taxes are the highest in the nation, auto insurance costs are the highest in the nation.
Auto insurance has become much more reasonable since deregulation 2 years or so ago. Taxes, yeah -- it's mainly the real estate taxes that are a problem, because towns have a lot more local control than in other states. On the plus side, this gives the ability to set up great public schools.
NJ real estate is still appreciating except at the very high end, unlike CA.
Not as far as I can tell now -- there's been a slight but noticeable drop in real estate values around where I live during the course of the summer. (Near Morristown, NJ).
and some don't require them on certain days of the week
Also, they're also only normally required between 9am and 5pm. Nothing wrong with going to the beach after hours; in fact it's nicer since there are fewer people and it's cooler out.
I live in New Jersey and am annoyed to no end that we have to pay to use the beach.
You don't have to pay to use the beach in most towns at all hours, only during the day. If you go after 5-6 pm, it's free (but there aren't lifeguards, so if you're not a strong swimmer, don't swim alone). Besides, after hours it's a bit cooler and there are fewer obnoxious people out.
Would this be an incentive for the enemy to produce shells filled with something sufficiently nasty (e.g. sarin?) so that hitting the shell in flight is bound to still do damage? Fire the shells from the other side of hills or something so the laser can't destroy them till they're over the laser position.
War has become far too deadly for fragile wetware, so now that the U.S. is fielding squadrons of drone aircraft, isn't it time to develop Wii-Remote Controlled T2000 combots?
What about grotesquely mutated humans in multi-nippled metal casings with grating robotic voices?
I suspect that Scaled will become less innovative under the management of a large, established company, unfortunately. Them with the money calls the shots:(
Best of luck to Rutan with establishing another aero company if he wants to...
Slashdot Mirror
It's not impossible to create a symbolic point-and-click interface if you really wanted to. And I suppose that language-agnostic applications might be another good use for the "metaverse." This still doesn't change the fact that an interface designed to emulate real life has most of the disadvantages of real life as well. It's also not too usable on mobile devices with small screens and slow connections. But as I said, it does have its uses. Just not as a replacement for the textual Web.
-b.
It's OK, I'm releasing 5,000 'bots in ninja suits to show their kung-fu skills. "My kid beat up your honor student." Oh, and a few dozen Daleks to randomly roll around and exterminate things...
-b.
The "clicking" interface is actually pretty consistent, unlike a simulation of real life where you have to explore to find stuff. And clicking/searching around is actually a pretty fast way to deal with a lot of textual/photographic information. Second Life interposes most of the inefficiencies of "real life" onto the Internet, and is a parallel niche, not a replacement. And, yes, it's good for some things -- companies that build things like cars or houses could have a presence to show their wares, and it's may even be good for some types of training (I've heard of it being used for EMT training).
However, for socializing? No thanks -- I'd rather either talk to someone on the phone, use text chat and do other things as well, or, best of all, go out and DO something. Something sterile and contrived like Second Life can't replace real human interaction. For business? Maybe in a limited set of cases, but face-to-face still is best, or you can use voice chat or online chat (which allow you to multi-task).
If you could have truly automated robotic avatars, things might get interesting, but then again, what's the advantage over a Web page for most tasks?
-b.
It emulates a world, and it requires undivided (or nearly so) attention while being "in" the world. The Internet and Internet messaging media are very useful _because_ you can multi-task whilst using them. Second Life/Metaverses/whatever seem like they'd be *more* time consuming than operating in the real world.
-b.
-b.
Yeah, China too. Wouldn't it have been nice for them if the shooting of Tianeman Square could have been confined to the basement of police headquarters at close range rather than out in the streets for every Western reporter to point at?
-b.
Make the draft process truly random and hard to get out of. If congresspeople's sons are going to go abroad, they'll be less likely to vote for a war. And make it a constitutional requirement to have a Congressional vote of something like 90% affirmative before being allowed to deploy troops abroad.
-b.
Actually, I'd prefer if the US worked on the Swiss system. A citizens' militia in which service is mandatory, designed to defend the country against invasion and attack. Every citizen (or at least a large proportion) should be alert, vigilant and trained. Alternatives to military service like disaster cleanup, teaching, and police work should also be allowed. This military should be strictly defensive -- we should cease our abuse of countries outside our borders (which would go a long way towards preventing terrorism in itself!).
-b.
Yep, Western European countries can be pretty bad. See also, preemptive arrests of suspected "football hooligans" before matches. No charges, no trials, just hold them until the match is over and they can no longer do damage. Much of eastern Europe is, IMHO, still better, if only because (a) they have memories of repressive dictatorships and DON'T want to go back to that and (b) there's not enough money to maintain strong police forces.
-b.
Furthermore, not everyone who happens to be in the street (or looking out of their flat window at a commotion) is even necessarily involved in what's going on with the police. But, yeah, the presumption of guilt just because someone gets arrested is rather appalling.
-b.
Nah, they'll be sold to our Middle Eastern "allies", Israel, various African states, etc, to further the cause of repression. Once industry gets a hold of this, it _will_ be sold to the highest bidder. And just because it's "non-lethal" doesn't mean that the people arrested with use of this won't be beaten or shot behind closed doors after being arrested. Blood in the streets makes for bad PR for any government, dictatorships included. Blood behind closed doors is out of sight, out of mind, sadly.
-b.
Can't speak for looters, but rioters and angry mobs often have a good reason to be angry, and repressing them will just cause things to blow up completely eventually. Keep in mind that without "angry mobs" and "rioters" most of Eastern Europe would still be crying under the Russian boot.
I'm betting that this technology will be sold by us to some of our most repressive so-called friends.
-b.
So's Sandy Hook -- you only pay for vehicle entry. If you bike or walk in, it's free.
AFAIK, none of this is true anymore. My family had a house there until ca. 2000. The beach opens later on Sundays -- 12:30 or so, but is still open, and swimming is perfectly legal. And no one would boot you off the beach if you went there earlier -- it was technically illegal, and there were no lifeguards, but no one cared much.
As far as the residents-only thing, you can just buy beach badges -- I don't think they ever carded anyone to buy a badge. Restricting the beach to residents would mean losing tourist money, and it's a very tourist-y sort of place.
-b.
Americans tend to be rather puritanical about alcohol and in general -- remember that we were founded by the people that England kicked out for being too conservative :P. NJ and NYC actually are less strict than many other parts of the country -- there are whole counties in the South where alcohol is entirely illegal (enforced to differing degrees depending on where you are).
-b.
Why don't we concentrate on having frequent, inexpensive, and fast train service first? There are quite a few train routes in Poland which are almost as fast as the American "high speed" BOS-WAS trains -- using 1950s equipment and loks. The American passenger rail network is a national disgrace, currently.
-b.
They're free after 5 pm or so, but before dark, so you have another few hours of free beach time usually. As far as closure at night, as long as you're not doing anything too obnoxious, most towns could care less from my experience.
-b.
There are some even odder setups down the shore. My family used to own a house in a town called Ocean Grove, which was a small town originally created as a Methodist resort in the 1890s, near Asbury Park. It was eventually incorporated into a town called Neptune, but was basically a single private property owned by the church, and people had to pay a nominal lease of something like $10/yr to continue to use their land.
-b.
I thought going "down the shore" was more like going to a shore town. Going to the beach, is ... well ... going to the actual beach from wherever you're staying.
-b.
Auto insurance has become much more reasonable since deregulation 2 years or so ago. Taxes, yeah -- it's mainly the real estate taxes that are a problem, because towns have a lot more local control than in other states. On the plus side, this gives the ability to set up great public schools.
NJ real estate is still appreciating except at the very high end, unlike CA.
Not as far as I can tell now -- there's been a slight but noticeable drop in real estate values around where I live during the course of the summer. (Near Morristown, NJ).
-b.
Also, they're also only normally required between 9am and 5pm. Nothing wrong with going to the beach after hours; in fact it's nicer since there are fewer people and it's cooler out.
-b.
You don't have to pay to use the beach in most towns at all hours, only during the day. If you go after 5-6 pm, it's free (but there aren't lifeguards, so if you're not a strong swimmer, don't swim alone). Besides, after hours it's a bit cooler and there are fewer obnoxious people out.
-b.
-b.
What about grotesquely mutated humans in multi-nippled metal casings with grating robotic voices?
We o-bey! We will ex-ter-min-ate!
-b.
Best of luck to Rutan with establishing another aero company if he wants to...
-b.