He believes we will see the first computers as smart as people by 2015.
To be fair, Kurzweil predicted this first. I believe he said 2012, though. Kurzweil also defined "as smart as people" by the computing ability. He said where a human is a symmetric multiprocessing machine, the sheer speed of the processors by 2012 should compensate for the single execution path. However, as we're seeing, more cores are being added and better multiprocessing is happening so it's difficult to judge now.
I don't think YouTube was the powerhouse it is now back in June. Sure, it was popular, but my parents are using youtube now. They weren't in June. My Mom has had a myspace account since April and doesn't care about myspace videos, but she sends me youtube links all the time now.
Americans don't do much in the way of serious work. We invent things and then employ other people to do the work. We don't have any possibility for leading the freeworld if we can't own our ideas, do we? Hence the IP madness.
I have never been satisfied with OpenOffice. There's always something I need to do that doesn't work right or documents don't look right, etc. I really wish it was an office replacement, but it's not. I guess if everyone uses it, then it doesn't matter since it handles it's own documents fine... It will be interesting to read about for sure.
We have a hard time finding good programmers and would rather put them on important projects that make a hell of a lot more than we spend buying licenses for excel. What we're doing has been extremely effective and, in fact, very good for the nation.
Yep. I think excel is simultaneously the best and worst tool to come to finance. And when people say "you need a db", they don't realize that a lot of people simply use excel as a sophisticated calculator and not always just to store data...
As to the type of responses I'd get, look at them... case and point.
I've tried Open Office. I used it all through college, actually. The thing that excel has is the vba programming. Before everyone flares up, we simply can't avoid vba and excel. All the business people learn to use it and it makes some heavy duty calculations TRIVIAL to model in a programmatic way. These people know excel and don't care to learn the best way to do things. They don't even care about making the spreadsheet clean and easy to read. If they can make it crunch the numbers correctly, they're happy. Since these are the people who also bring the dough into the system, we have to adapt to what their needs are. It's not necessarily sharing the data, though it would be easier than having to worry about actual files. It's about how quickly something can get the job done and when people already know excel, excel wins.
I need excel and there is no two ways about it. Until other spreadsheet systems can absorb all the work my company (a large investment bank) has done and continues to do in excel, we won't even consider using anything else.
I imagine MANY slashdotters are in the same boat.
I don't think it's quite that easy. It's hard to say what a user pays for vs. what is given free with the OS. Maybe the OS costs $200 and the pdf reader is given free. Microsoft paid for the development costs and gave the software away with the OS... right?
Is it that simple that any software they bundle, you're considered paying for?
"Adobe is calling for Microsoft to be barred from building into the OS free software that competes with Acrobat."
When a document format is open... wouldn't what Adobe is asking for be anti-competitive instead of what Microsoft is doing?
It's much easier to say, "don't do it" than to say, "ok.. now you did. please undo it." they'll want compensation for money they spent or will want to charge customers to make up for costs spent needlessly. if they get this and take it a step further, they'll know the general public is too apathetic to care and will keep going until we're forced to use the internet exactly how they want us too.
Slashdot Mirror
You give your brain too much credit.
To be fair, Kurzweil predicted this first. I believe he said 2012, though. Kurzweil also defined "as smart as people" by the computing ability. He said where a human is a symmetric multiprocessing machine, the sheer speed of the processors by 2012 should compensate for the single execution path. However, as we're seeing, more cores are being added and better multiprocessing is happening so it's difficult to judge now.
Kurzweil's book is ISBN: 0140282025
Aren't you supposed to "work more hours" to enjoy the PS3?
Ignore news related to it.
"Glory [or defeat] is fleeting, but obscurity is forever." - Napoleon Bonaparte
Shame, really.
Sco's lawyers might be out of a job soon. I'm sure they'd love to help!
There is no reason to be annoyed by people trying to do good things!
Interesting point. Do you have anything to substantiate the claim?
I don't think YouTube was the powerhouse it is now back in June. Sure, it was popular, but my parents are using youtube now. They weren't in June. My Mom has had a myspace account since April and doesn't care about myspace videos, but she sends me youtube links all the time now.
Hence all the php and flash. They're trying to give people things they already know and are familiar with.
Americans don't do much in the way of serious work. We invent things and then employ other people to do the work. We don't have any possibility for leading the freeworld if we can't own our ideas, do we? Hence the IP madness.
I'd like to start a trolling tld. Want to help? We can make a ton! I'll call it .sco!
I have never been satisfied with OpenOffice. There's always something I need to do that doesn't work right or documents don't look right, etc. I really wish it was an office replacement, but it's not. I guess if everyone uses it, then it doesn't matter since it handles it's own documents fine... It will be interesting to read about for sure.
you're fol o' crap!
Le Frog Linux.
Does anyone know what distro they're planning to use? If financial factors are an issue, perhaps Ubuntu?
We have a hard time finding good programmers and would rather put them on important projects that make a hell of a lot more than we spend buying licenses for excel. What we're doing has been extremely effective and, in fact, very good for the nation.
Yep. I think excel is simultaneously the best and worst tool to come to finance. And when people say "you need a db", they don't realize that a lot of people simply use excel as a sophisticated calculator and not always just to store data... As to the type of responses I'd get, look at them... case and point.
I've tried Open Office. I used it all through college, actually. The thing that excel has is the vba programming. Before everyone flares up, we simply can't avoid vba and excel. All the business people learn to use it and it makes some heavy duty calculations TRIVIAL to model in a programmatic way. These people know excel and don't care to learn the best way to do things. They don't even care about making the spreadsheet clean and easy to read. If they can make it crunch the numbers correctly, they're happy. Since these are the people who also bring the dough into the system, we have to adapt to what their needs are. It's not necessarily sharing the data, though it would be easier than having to worry about actual files. It's about how quickly something can get the job done and when people already know excel, excel wins.
Stop talking.
To clarify: I would continue to choose non-web-based ms office over all alternatives.
I need excel and there is no two ways about it. Until other spreadsheet systems can absorb all the work my company (a large investment bank) has done and continues to do in excel, we won't even consider using anything else. I imagine MANY slashdotters are in the same boat.
I don't think it's quite that easy. It's hard to say what a user pays for vs. what is given free with the OS. Maybe the OS costs $200 and the pdf reader is given free. Microsoft paid for the development costs and gave the software away with the OS... right? Is it that simple that any software they bundle, you're considered paying for?
"Adobe is calling for Microsoft to be barred from building into the OS free software that competes with Acrobat." When a document format is open... wouldn't what Adobe is asking for be anti-competitive instead of what Microsoft is doing?
It's much easier to say, "don't do it" than to say, "ok.. now you did. please undo it." they'll want compensation for money they spent or will want to charge customers to make up for costs spent needlessly. if they get this and take it a step further, they'll know the general public is too apathetic to care and will keep going until we're forced to use the internet exactly how they want us too.