Yeah, but looking a homeless person in the eye and then giving them spare change is worse for them than donating to a charity on your computer since the spare change just goes to alcohol and drugs.
People need to realize that this is not the government waste/quantum computing expose it is made out to be in this article. Whenever the supercomputing community comes out with a new resource, we test it and find the best algorithms for that resource. We have a long history of different algorithms working better for different resources. Take for instance, the transition from the Cray vector processors, to commodity Intel processors, then back to vector processors with the Earth Simulator, then back to Intel, then Cell processors, then CPUs. All of these required significant tweaking of our algorithms, which can take 5-10 years for the real work-horse codes to accomplish. In this case, the low hanging fruit lies in encryption, but other algorithms will find a niche in the quantum computing sector.
On that note, Slashdot will not longer be taking submissions for stories or allow for user comments. Instead, machine learning bots will scan the web for content and natural language recognition bots will make witty comments and then debate them endlessly.
Did anyone actually read this story and notice that this is highly inefficient and not much of an engine. While it fits the definition of an engine thermodynamically, the process that they describe is not particularly useful. This is just an example of scientists doing their research and then noticing that they have met the definition for an engine and then promoting this fact in order to get press and increase their chances of funding down the road.
The total moves required to reach a solution is usually more important than the moves per second. While the robot is slower to physically move the device, it is probably moving the cube more efficiently than many humans. For instance, I can solve the cube, but do so by only moving one square at a time. More advanced solvers can move several squares simultaneously... a good computer will come up with the most efficient moves to solve the puzzle.
I use the Chase iphone app and am perfectly happy with its security. I did not opt to store my username on the phone and therefor my security was never in a perilous state. People who chose to store their username on the phone have a SLIGHTLY less secure system, but probably chose to do so because their password is very secure or they just don't care. I think this is more about people than systems.
Its great that these planets probably exist, but what distance is their orbits? While, planet size gives us a good idea of how much atmosphere the planet could have, the orbital distance gives us an estimate of the surface temperature. Also important is the rotational frequency and the angle of tilt. It seems like there are a lot more variables that need to be considered in considering these probabilities.
Too bad you need to have stump hands and legs in order to fit into it. Would be worthwhile to buy it just to reverse engineer the prosthetics. I guess the voice synthesizer could help you get a bunch of voice over ad deals also.
The biggest national defense use for these machines is nuclear stockpile stewardship and theoretical development of new weapons capabilities. This is a pretty big deal and is why there are export controls on Intel chips to countries like Iran. This is why all of the fastest US machines only remain unclassified during the development stage and then convert to classified status.
I don't really think that we should really worry about conventional information weapons so much. What we should focus more of our fear and resources on are the infamous IWMD (Information Weapons of Mass Destruction). The development of these by axis of evil nations should be monitored and sanctioned.
Linux is a terrific operating system, and provides a functionality that is unparalleled for a great deal of technologies that do not have good support from other operating systems. Yet for years, it was just too hard to use for most people. This has finally changed with recent distros like Ubuntu, but the time that it took to get "it just works" versions into peoples hands was fueled by developer's not listening to lay users who had trouble with the OS. Here's a useful experiment... I think we are finally at a point where I could give a go live version of Ubuntu to my mother and expect her to have some success in using it though this is perhaps not yet true for many other distros.
"Then, all it takes are some simple "right of way" rules and a small amount of computing power... needed to avoid collisions"
These simple right of way rules result in lots of collisions on the road. Air collisions are usually fatal. It would be good to see this working in 2D (cars) first before we go to 3D (planes).
I think that while the average student should just learn the science as best they can. There are often good research opportunities for the superstars. Most university and industry labs would be happy to mentor smart high school students in research projects. There are lots of summer programs set up for high school students to do research. Simply search for them in your locality or consider contacting local universities and companies doing research. They need to be willing to do some grunt work in exchange for the experience, though. Its worth noting that many of these pay wages that are much better than the average highschooler usually gets. Its still worthwhile to the company because $10 per hour is still a lot less than the $25 an hour that most postdocs get or $50 an hour that professionals get.
"You will exert all of this effort to teach an individual who is really past their learning stage a skill that requires a huge amount of infrastructure...I definitely would go for teaching young children, who would benefit (and need it) more and also be more receptive to technology. "
Yes but there is always the chance that the person you teach to use the computer will reward you handsomely in their will. Young kids are much less likely to die before you and to acquire a lot of wealth to leave you if they die before you. Hee hee.
The key to this story is the name of the lab... Its the friggin LIGHTNING laboratory! So no, this will not ever really be useful. This is just a directed static discharge.
Slashdot Mirror
This and all of my slashdot comments were generated by an automated commenter and I always get modded up!
Yeah, but looking a homeless person in the eye and then giving them spare change is worse for them than donating to a charity on your computer since the spare change just goes to alcohol and drugs.
People need to realize that this is not the government waste/quantum computing expose it is made out to be in this article. Whenever the supercomputing community comes out with a new resource, we test it and find the best algorithms for that resource. We have a long history of different algorithms working better for different resources. Take for instance, the transition from the Cray vector processors, to commodity Intel processors, then back to vector processors with the Earth Simulator, then back to Intel, then Cell processors, then CPUs. All of these required significant tweaking of our algorithms, which can take 5-10 years for the real work-horse codes to accomplish. In this case, the low hanging fruit lies in encryption, but other algorithms will find a niche in the quantum computing sector.
This sounds like a trait list for having Autism Spectrum Disorder. No seriously
On that note, Slashdot will not longer be taking submissions for stories or allow for user comments. Instead, machine learning bots will scan the web for content and natural language recognition bots will make witty comments and then debate them endlessly.
If not, then you should probably stick with the Microsoft job.
Did anyone actually read this story and notice that this is highly inefficient and not much of an engine. While it fits the definition of an engine thermodynamically, the process that they describe is not particularly useful. This is just an example of scientists doing their research and then noticing that they have met the definition for an engine and then promoting this fact in order to get press and increase their chances of funding down the road.
They would have gone absolutely crazy about the iPad! I'm only kind of joking. After checking out my inlaw's Kindle, I'm unimpressed.
The total moves required to reach a solution is usually more important than the moves per second. While the robot is slower to physically move the device, it is probably moving the cube more efficiently than many humans. For instance, I can solve the cube, but do so by only moving one square at a time. More advanced solvers can move several squares simultaneously... a good computer will come up with the most efficient moves to solve the puzzle.
I use the Chase iphone app and am perfectly happy with its security. I did not opt to store my username on the phone and therefor my security was never in a perilous state. People who chose to store their username on the phone have a SLIGHTLY less secure system, but probably chose to do so because their password is very secure or they just don't care. I think this is more about people than systems.
I would think that "amature teenage slut" would have the best chance of winning.
FYI, Mark Zuckerberg says that he ALWAYS acquires companies for the people rather than the intellectual property.
Its great that these planets probably exist, but what distance is their orbits? While, planet size gives us a good idea of how much atmosphere the planet could have, the orbital distance gives us an estimate of the surface temperature. Also important is the rotational frequency and the angle of tilt. It seems like there are a lot more variables that need to be considered in considering these probabilities.
Too bad you need to have stump hands and legs in order to fit into it. Would be worthwhile to buy it just to reverse engineer the prosthetics. I guess the voice synthesizer could help you get a bunch of voice over ad deals also.
They should announce the new site on their Facebook page.
True to its name, the Segway provided a segue into the next stage of life.
The biggest national defense use for these machines is nuclear stockpile stewardship and theoretical development of new weapons capabilities. This is a pretty big deal and is why there are export controls on Intel chips to countries like Iran. This is why all of the fastest US machines only remain unclassified during the development stage and then convert to classified status.
that false alarms will become more frequent :-)
I don't really think that we should really worry about conventional information weapons so much. What we should focus more of our fear and resources on are the infamous IWMD (Information Weapons of Mass Destruction). The development of these by axis of evil nations should be monitored and sanctioned.
Linux is a terrific operating system, and provides a functionality that is unparalleled for a great deal of technologies that do not have good support from other operating systems. Yet for years, it was just too hard to use for most people. This has finally changed with recent distros like Ubuntu, but the time that it took to get "it just works" versions into peoples hands was fueled by developer's not listening to lay users who had trouble with the OS. Here's a useful experiment... I think we are finally at a point where I could give a go live version of Ubuntu to my mother and expect her to have some success in using it though this is perhaps not yet true for many other distros.
"Then, all it takes are some simple "right of way" rules and a small amount of computing power ... needed to avoid collisions"
These simple right of way rules result in lots of collisions on the road. Air collisions are usually fatal. It would be good to see this working in 2D (cars) first before we go to 3D (planes).
I think that while the average student should just learn the science as best they can. There are often good research opportunities for the superstars. Most university and industry labs would be happy to mentor smart high school students in research projects. There are lots of summer programs set up for high school students to do research. Simply search for them in your locality or consider contacting local universities and companies doing research. They need to be willing to do some grunt work in exchange for the experience, though. Its worth noting that many of these pay wages that are much better than the average highschooler usually gets. Its still worthwhile to the company because $10 per hour is still a lot less than the $25 an hour that most postdocs get or $50 an hour that professionals get.
"You will exert all of this effort to teach an individual who is really past their learning stage a skill that requires a huge amount of infrastructure...I definitely would go for teaching young children, who would benefit (and need it) more and also be more receptive to technology. "
Yes but there is always the chance that the person you teach to use the computer will reward you handsomely in their will. Young kids are much less likely to die before you and to acquire a lot of wealth to leave you if they die before you. Hee hee.
The key to this story is the name of the lab... Its the friggin LIGHTNING laboratory! So no, this will not ever really be useful. This is just a directed static discharge.
So, will we be able to clone Jesus within our lifetime for 100 millions bucks? No, I'm not religious. Thats the point!