of a brain. How do they plan to get and process that much I/O? Oh, and what storage scheme are they planning on?
This might be yet another step on the way to a truly sentient artificial intelligence - but even if these things live up to their promise, we still have a long way to go before we artificially create consciousness. Incidentally, how will we know that we've succeeded? The old "ability to ask the question is the answer" rule doesn't apply, as the device could easily be programmed to ask - or might just randomly ask, but not really care about the answer.
...they can regulate how police organizations are permitted to use existing technology and equipment. Ridiculous example - a police department in Texas may be able to get their hands on an M-1 tank, doesn't mean they can use it. Of course, they'll actually get to use it once, but after that...
It wasn't an argument, merely an observation. One based on my personal experiences and opinions. Yours may differ - but I still feel that they can define what they do with the information we give them as sharing. More so than sharing music online - in the case of corporations and the government, there's definitely an understanding between both parties involved. To be honest, when I've shared music, I doubt seriously that the original source was ever specifically aware of my existence. When corporations and the government share data, they do so (hopefully) with the clear understanding that it is taking place.
Incidentally, I know your opinions and ethics differ from mine, but I'm not interested in arguing. Feel free to state a differing opinion, but don't expect me to suddenly change mine. I may end up on the losing side of this debate - but I'm not so sure it'll be the wrong one.
They'll never take the internet down. If Karl Marx famously said "Religion is the opiate of the masses", I'm afraid the internet makes heroin look like a nice cup of warm milk.
In the old days, rioters were young active people who cared deeply about their country, their government and their world.
Looked at the average internet user lately? Hell, let's go above average - looked at the average/. user lately? I don't know about the rest of you, but it'll damned near take an act of G*D to get me to put down the mouse (well, an act of G*D or needing to refill my bowl of chips so I can fill my bowel with chips).
Just sayin'. Give 'em bread and circuses, they'll pipe down quickly enough.
I for one, am buoyed by the likelihood there is less chance of life elsewhere in the Universe.
Yeah, but the absence of life out there sort of implies to me that it might be harder for us to actually colonize alien worlds. Creating a viable ecosystem is a lot more than just seeding plants/animals/genetic matter in a previously lifeless environment. You'll have to start out with the most primitive unicellular life our planet ever produced (you know, the first living cells to come out of the primordial soup?) - then, when they've altered the lifeless planet enough to make it tolerable, you'll need to introduce life that can survive in that nearly lifeless environment . . . in short, you'll have to try to compress several billion years of evolutionary changes to the ecosystem into something resembling a human lifetime or less.
If there's life already present, a lot of the preliminary work may be done for us - as long as we don't run into anything that's 1) smarter then we are, and 2) thinks we're just delicious.
Just to say - it was (IMHO) a romp - a chance for a bit of more or less mindless diversion from the routine workaday world some of us inhabit. George Lucas wasn't out to make a statement (Avatar, anyone?). He wasn't out to do serious drama (too many examples to cite). He wasn't out to do science fiction (practically no scientific credibility that it could ever have been or ever be what he depicted). It was fun. Lots of Battle of Britain style dogfights in space, because George Lucas had a liking for the old fighter pilot camera footage that was obtained during WW II. Ships in space don't fly like that.
Okay, breaking continuity does make it harder to suspend disbelief. Most movie viewers can get over that within a few minutes, and I'm not really watching Star Wars for the dialog, social commentary, or even the technical predictions. I'm there to see the money shot, and hopefully a fun story to keep me from disbelieving while I wait for Luke's X-wing to fly down the trench. You know what impressed me even when I was a teenager? The fact that fast moving objects actually looked blurry, and that the Millennium Falcon was dirty. That was the first interstellar vessel I ever saw represented on film as having grease on the walls. Hell, there were even chrome (fuzzy) dice hanging from the rearview mirror, and it was the first time that I saw such incredible detail - detail which correctly got blurred when the viewpoint moved quickly. I just want the underlying story to not ruin my ability to suspend disbelief, so that I can enjoy the money shot.
Automobiles in operation on public roads do not enjoy the same protections as a private home, vehicle on private property, etc. If the officer had found the suspect vehicle parked in a driveway, knocked on the front door and then smelled marijuana, he would have to go through the added step of justifying a search warrant.
The officer suspected that the driver might be impaired (by drugs, alcohol, medical condition . . . whatever). He pulled the driver over.
He smelled marijuana. Now he had a reasonable suspicion that the driver was impaired and that evidence supporting that suspicion would be found in the car.
Or shall we have the police simply stop investigating all crimes which they don't personally witness? Mind you, I'm no fan of the police or their well-documented history of abusing the system to perform their duties. I just don't want to be mugged some night and not be able to get the police to respond until I bring credible evidence of that mugging in to the police department.
Is it as satisfying? No. I say it's time we go back for another firsthand look. Perhaps even land there and start doing more research - not into "what is the moon made of" or "where did the moon come from". More along the lines of "how can I build a profitable luxury hotel here?"
So what do we do? Prohibit the police from acting on 911 calls from anonymous sources like pay phones or pay-as-you-go phones? What if my cellular phone routinely routes over VOIP if it can find a WiFi connection?
"Help, I'm being chased by a man with a machete! I'm at First and Main, running for my life!"
"Too bad. I don't see your caller ID information - let us know how that machete thing works out for you."
But only when I'm not at home or at work, and only when I've forgotten to bring both my laptop and my tablet (with bluetooth keyboard) with me. In short - times when I've cracked a duh-lithium crystal by exceeding duh-factor eight.
Incidentally, my phone and tablet both run Android - and the tablet is only marginally better than the phone at actually doing anything productive. Even with BusyBox and a decent SSH client, the OS and interface just aren't optimized for much beyond gaming, entertainment and basic connectivity (at least, to me).
The ability of my ISP to hack and slash my router is nominally annoying. If it truly bothers me, I can buy a compatible cable or DSL modem and use my own router (or even buy my own cable/DSL wireless router) and ensure that it is not vulnerable - assuming such a piece of equipment is available on the consumer market. The cost won't break my bank.
For enterprises, such a vulnerability could be catastrophic and would require immediate remediation regardless of budget considerations. Or more accurately, many enterprises would be forced to choose between preserving their network security and preserving their operating capital. The cost to commerce for this could be devastating if this exploit is not confined to consumer-grade equipment.
TFA only mentions consumer grade routers. Please let that be the extent of this . . .
It is so that rubbing alcohol may be sold without further precautions. That's why it's labelled 'denatured'. Anybody notice something about the price of rubbing alcohol (say, the 70%abv stuff) versus the potable variety?
That's actually good to know. Question - given a full bowl of food and a half-full bowl of the same food, will your average house pet pick one preferentially over the other? What about if it's trained to expect the other bowl to be removed immediately after it chooses one?
It would be nice to see what animals are capable of this kind of differentiation - although the ability of Rhesus macaques to use symbolic representations to differentiate between 'more' and 'less' appears to be significant on several levels (at least, to me).
I used to use a wedge and a sledge hammer for this kind of work. An ax is a good wood cutting tool that happens to be able to split logs pretty well.
This is a purpose-designed ax, meant specifically for splitting logs. It might be marginally superior to an ax for the job. It might even be better or more convenient than a wedge and a sledge. I don't see it really catching on - I think an ax is a far more flexible tool, and if you're specifically interested in splitting logs there are other special-purpose tools already available that'll do the job just as well.
Slashdot Mirror
Breaks my heart! ;^D
This might be yet another step on the way to a truly sentient artificial intelligence - but even if these things live up to their promise, we still have a long way to go before we artificially create consciousness. Incidentally, how will we know that we've succeeded? The old "ability to ask the question is the answer" rule doesn't apply, as the device could easily be programmed to ask - or might just randomly ask, but not really care about the answer.
...they can regulate how police organizations are permitted to use existing technology and equipment. Ridiculous example - a police department in Texas may be able to get their hands on an M-1 tank, doesn't mean they can use it. Of course, they'll actually get to use it once, but after that...
I'd love to see a beowulf cluster of those!
That's "Guantanamo Detention Center". Proper nouns should be capitalized.
Incidentally, I know your opinions and ethics differ from mine, but I'm not interested in arguing. Feel free to state a differing opinion, but don't expect me to suddenly change mine. I may end up on the losing side of this debate - but I'm not so sure it'll be the wrong one.
They'll never take the internet down. If Karl Marx famously said "Religion is the opiate of the masses", I'm afraid the internet makes heroin look like a nice cup of warm milk.
Not saying it's right, just that it's so.
Looked at the average internet user lately? Hell, let's go above average - looked at the average /. user lately? I don't know about the rest of you, but it'll damned near take an act of G*D to get me to put down the mouse (well, an act of G*D or needing to refill my bowl of chips so I can fill my bowel with chips).
Just sayin'. Give 'em bread and circuses, they'll pipe down quickly enough.
Delicious, especially when broiled and smothered in BBQ sauce.
Yeah, but the absence of life out there sort of implies to me that it might be harder for us to actually colonize alien worlds. Creating a viable ecosystem is a lot more than just seeding plants/animals/genetic matter in a previously lifeless environment. You'll have to start out with the most primitive unicellular life our planet ever produced (you know, the first living cells to come out of the primordial soup?) - then, when they've altered the lifeless planet enough to make it tolerable, you'll need to introduce life that can survive in that nearly lifeless environment . . . in short, you'll have to try to compress several billion years of evolutionary changes to the ecosystem into something resembling a human lifetime or less.
If there's life already present, a lot of the preliminary work may be done for us - as long as we don't run into anything that's 1) smarter then we are, and 2) thinks we're just delicious.
Okay, breaking continuity does make it harder to suspend disbelief. Most movie viewers can get over that within a few minutes, and I'm not really watching Star Wars for the dialog, social commentary, or even the technical predictions. I'm there to see the money shot, and hopefully a fun story to keep me from disbelieving while I wait for Luke's X-wing to fly down the trench. You know what impressed me even when I was a teenager? The fact that fast moving objects actually looked blurry, and that the Millennium Falcon was dirty. That was the first interstellar vessel I ever saw represented on film as having grease on the walls. Hell, there were even chrome (fuzzy) dice hanging from the rearview mirror, and it was the first time that I saw such incredible detail - detail which correctly got blurred when the viewpoint moved quickly. I just want the underlying story to not ruin my ability to suspend disbelief, so that I can enjoy the money shot.
Incidentally, an avalanche is generally considered a destructive force.
IANAL.
He smelled marijuana. Now he had a reasonable suspicion that the driver was impaired and that evidence supporting that suspicion would be found in the car.
Or shall we have the police simply stop investigating all crimes which they don't personally witness? Mind you, I'm no fan of the police or their well-documented history of abusing the system to perform their duties. I just don't want to be mugged some night and not be able to get the police to respond until I bring credible evidence of that mugging in to the police department.
Probably.
Is it as satisfying? No. I say it's time we go back for another firsthand look. Perhaps even land there and start doing more research - not into "what is the moon made of" or "where did the moon come from". More along the lines of "how can I build a profitable luxury hotel here?"
"Help, I'm being chased by a man with a machete! I'm at First and Main, running for my life!"
"Too bad. I don't see your caller ID information - let us know how that machete thing works out for you."
Heinous as that sounds, I'm pretty sure that's how it's supposed to work. (*ducks and waits for flames*)
Incidentally, my phone and tablet both run Android - and the tablet is only marginally better than the phone at actually doing anything productive. Even with BusyBox and a decent SSH client, the OS and interface just aren't optimized for much beyond gaming, entertainment and basic connectivity (at least, to me).
For enterprises, such a vulnerability could be catastrophic and would require immediate remediation regardless of budget considerations. Or more accurately, many enterprises would be forced to choose between preserving their network security and preserving their operating capital. The cost to commerce for this could be devastating if this exploit is not confined to consumer-grade equipment.
TFA only mentions consumer grade routers. Please let that be the extent of this . . .
It is so that rubbing alcohol may be sold without further precautions. That's why it's labelled 'denatured'. Anybody notice something about the price of rubbing alcohol (say, the 70%abv stuff) versus the potable variety?
It is if you're going to the ball game. Priced a beer at the local sports arena lately?
(OPINION): Legal != Permissible.
It would be nice to see what animals are capable of this kind of differentiation - although the ability of Rhesus macaques to use symbolic representations to differentiate between 'more' and 'less' appears to be significant on several levels (at least, to me).
This is a purpose-designed ax, meant specifically for splitting logs. It might be marginally superior to an ax for the job. It might even be better or more convenient than a wedge and a sledge. I don't see it really catching on - I think an ax is a far more flexible tool, and if you're specifically interested in splitting logs there are other special-purpose tools already available that'll do the job just as well.