What does Cycorp mean by saying that the knowledge base will be "open source"? Will it be publicly available? Will it be free?
Yes, OpenCyc may be freely copied, distributed and used for commercial or non-commercial purposes according to the terms of the OpenCyc license. OpenCyc is currently released under the GNU Library or "Lesser" Public License (LGPL). "Source code" in this license refers to the CycL assertions in the OpenCyc Knowledge Base. Qualified parties can obtain a free license to a substantially larger subset of the Cyc Knowledge Base known as ResearchCyc (when it becomes available, Q203?), which is for R&D use only. The complete Cyc Knowledge Base can be licensed from Cycorp, Inc. for commercial use. Terms for licensing the complete Cyc KB are negotiated on an individual basis. Year by year, each assertion in the latest version of Cyc will migrate to a subsequent release of ResearchCyc, and each assertion in ResearchCyc will migrate to a later release of OpenCyc.
I think you give Edison too much credit. Do a little research and you will see that his "assistants" did most of the work. You are right about Tesla being cerebral:
"Then I observed to my delight that i could visualize with the greatest facility. I needed no models, drawings or experiments. I could picture them all as real in my mind. Thus I have been led unconsciously to evolve what I consider a new method of materializing inventive concepts and ideas, which is radially opposite to the purely experimental and is in my opinion ever so much more expeditious and efficient.
The moment one constructs a device to carry into practice a crude idea, he finds himself unavoidably engrossed with the details of the apparatus. As he goes on improving and reconstructing, his force of concentration diminishes and he loses sight of the great underlying principle. Results may be obtained, but always at the sacrifice of quality. My method is different. I do not rush into actual work. When I get an idea, I start at once building it up in my imagination. I change the construction, make improvements and operate the device in my mind. It is absolutely immaterial to me whether I run my turbine in thought or test it in my shop. I even note if it is out of balance. There is no difference whatever; the results are the same. In this way I am able to rapidly develop and perfect a conception without touching anything. When I have gone so far as to embody in the invention every possible improvement I can think of and see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete form this final product of my brain. Invariably my device works as I conceived that it should, and the experiment comes out exactly as I planned it. In twenty years there has not been a single exception. Why should it be otherwise? Engineering, electrical and mechanical, is positive in results. There is scarcely a subject that cannot be examined beforehand, from the available theoretical and practical data. The carrying out into practice of a crude idea as is being generally done, is, I hold, nothing but a waste of energy, money, and time."
"One of the biggest social issues facing mashup developers is the tradeoff between the protection of intellectual property and consumer privacy versus fair-use and the free flow of information. Unwitting content providers (targets of screen scraping), and even content providers who expose APIs to facilitate data retrieval might determine that their content is being used in a manner that they do not approve of."
The biggest problem I see with these mashups, or any kind of application that relies on a third party(TP), is that once you get enough air, they can just take the rug out from under you and offer you parachutes on your way down. It can be as simple as the TP dying or just dropping the web-service that is an integral part of your application, or as complicated as "we don't want you knowing this" or "we think this is illegal." Also there's a possibility that TP will start charging you bandwidth since you are taking up X% and they will need to upgrade their facilities. Add to this the legal uncertainty whether the TP really owns the data being provided and you got yourself one hell of a mashup.
I mean the right to keep you private legal activities private
Except now you dont know what is legal. Especially now that there is 40 countries with their respective laws in different languages. Have fun being extradited to the Republic of X because Y is illegal there. (Psst: be careful who you piss off)
"There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard..."
Note: We are sorry that these talks are not available through BitTorrent, however under present IST policy we are not allowed to run BitTorrent. We thank you for your understanding.
We, the slashdot army, are sorry that we have used up all your bandwidth for the next 20 years. We thank you for your understanding.
Leon: Care if I talk? I'm kind of nervous when I take tests. Holden: Uh, just please don't move. Leon: Oh, sorry. [pause] I already had an IQ test this year, I don't think I've ever had one of these... Holden: Reaction time is a factor in this, so please pay attention. Now, answer as quickly as you can. Leon: Sure. Holden: One-one-eight-seven at Hunterwasser. Leon: That's the hotel. Holden: What? Leon: Where I live. Holden: Nice place? Leon: Yeah, sure I guess... that part of the test? Holden: No, just warming you up, that's all. Leon: Oh. It's not fancy or anything. Holden: You're in a desert, walking along in the sand when all of the sudden... Leon: Is this the test now? Holden: Yes. You're in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down... Leon: What one? Holden: What? Leon: What desert? Holden: It doesn't make any difference what desert, it's completely hypothetical. Leon: But how come I'd be there? Holden: Maybe you're fed up, maybe you want to be by yourself, who knows? You look down and you see a tortoise, Leon, it's crawling toward you... Leon: Tortoise? What's that? Holden: Know what a turtle is? Leon: Of course. Holden: Same thing. Leon: I've never seen a turtle. [pause] But I understand what you mean. Holden: You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back Leon. Leon: Do you make up these questions, Mr. Holden, or do they write them down for you? Holden: The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun beating its legs trying to turn itself over but it can't, not without your help, but you're not helping. Leon: What do you mean I'm not helping? Holden: I mean, you're not helping. Why is that Leon? [pause] They're just questions, Leon. In answer to your query, they're written down for me. It's a test, designed to provoke an emotional response. [pause] Shall we continue? Describe in single words, only the good things that come in to your mind about: your mother. Leon: My mother? Holden: Yeah. Leon: Let me tell you about my mother. [shot fired]
Is whitewashing and censoring the realities of war somehow better? Maybe if people would realize the horrors of war, they wouldn't let their elected puppets rush out and sacrifice the lives of the unprivileged. It is incredible how conformant and toothless the population has become. Enlist and see the "conduct of the human race" or get off your moral high-chair.
"Microsoft sent me a WGA diagnostic tool, which generates a text file with the results, which include, among other things, the final three portions of the five-part Product ID used to install Windows. I sent this file to Microsoft and awaited the results...Their preliminary findings were surprising. The key I had used to install Windows was a known pirated key, and required a modified version of winlogon.exe. This surprised me, naturally, since I don't pirate software..."
So either the first 2 portions of the "Product ID" are useless, or they can't claim if the key is pirated.
Slashdot Mirror
What a brainfuck.
What is real anyway?
So how many of these servers would you like to order today, sir?
Actually he was cremated.
He doesn't want you stealing his wonderful music.
"Components. American components, Russian Components, ALL MADE IN TAIWAN!"
1000^4 / 2000^4 = (1/2)^4 = 1:16
When the hat is not enough
What makes you think voting will make a difference? Like Stalin said: "It's not who votes that counts. It's who counts the votes."
Leon: Care if I talk? I'm kind of nervous when I take tests.
Holden: Uh, just please don't move.
Leon: Oh, sorry. [pause] I already had an IQ test this year, I don't think I've ever had one of these...
Holden: Reaction time is a factor in this, so please pay attention. Now, answer as quickly as you can.
Leon: Sure.
Holden: One-one-eight-seven at Hunterwasser.
Leon: That's the hotel.
Holden: What?
Leon: Where I live.
Holden: Nice place?
Leon: Yeah, sure I guess... that part of the test?
Holden: No, just warming you up, that's all.
Leon: Oh. It's not fancy or anything.
Holden: You're in a desert, walking along in the sand when all of the sudden...
Leon: Is this the test now?
Holden: Yes. You're in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down...
Leon: What one?
Holden: What?
Leon: What desert?
Holden: It doesn't make any difference what desert, it's completely hypothetical.
Leon: But how come I'd be there?
Holden: Maybe you're fed up, maybe you want to be by yourself, who knows? You look down and you see a tortoise, Leon, it's crawling toward you...
Leon: Tortoise? What's that?
Holden: Know what a turtle is?
Leon: Of course.
Holden: Same thing.
Leon: I've never seen a turtle. [pause] But I understand what you mean.
Holden: You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back Leon.
Leon: Do you make up these questions, Mr. Holden, or do they write them down for you?
Holden: The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun beating its legs trying to turn itself over but it can't, not without your help, but you're not helping.
Leon: What do you mean I'm not helping?
Holden: I mean, you're not helping. Why is that Leon? [pause] They're just questions, Leon. In answer to your query, they're written down for me. It's a test, designed to provoke an emotional response. [pause] Shall we continue? Describe in single words, only the good things that come in to your mind about: your mother.
Leon: My mother?
Holden: Yeah.
Leon: Let me tell you about my mother. [shot fired]
Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
Is whitewashing and censoring the realities of war somehow better? Maybe if people would realize the horrors of war, they wouldn't let their elected puppets rush out and sacrifice the lives of the unprivileged. It is incredible how conformant and toothless the population has become. Enlist and see the "conduct of the human race" or get off your moral high-chair.
..chair recognition
I use gtk+ instead of Qt because the licensing. Either way there's gtkmm that uses c++ anyway so your argument there is moot.
We still need a Caesar. Wouldn't want to be him though.
OOOh I see one that's familiar: my calling network and my financial transaction graph...hey wait a minute!
Why look, another fine example of patents encouraging innovation...
You forgot the most important thing in your impeachment deliberations--Cheney will take his place. Out of the pan and into...