That's why I always plant samples of my worst enemies hair, skin, and (ewww!) bodily fluids all around my house, so that when somebody tries to frame me, they will wind up framing my enemies instead! But seriously, if somebody that hates you that much has access to your DNA samples, you've already got some serious problems! My advice to you would be to stop screwing people that want to frame you for murder! While this might make a great episode of CSI:Geek Squad, I'm pretty sure most of the readers of slashdot (and most other people living in the real world) don't have to worry too much about being framed this way for murder.
P.S. Is this the real reason some people want a genetically identical clone -- so they can blame all the rapes and murders they commit on the clone?
Sigh... if you're going to quote Douglas Adams, at least quote him correctly:
Ford: "It's unpleasantly like being drunk."
Arthur: "What's so unpleasant about being drunk?"
Ford: "You ask a glass of water."
--Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Chapter 6
godzilla is decades old. ip law should time out after a decade, at worst
You are confusing copyright with trademark. Should I be able to call my product "Coke"? After all, Coca-cola is even older than Godzilla! Yes, copyright should expire after a reasonable time, but since they are still making Godzilla movies (last one was in 2004) this is still a valuable trademark. Yes, "copyright" IP should become a public domain part of our culture the death of the original creator. (The simplest solution is to make copyright non-transferable to a corporation, so that it dies with the creator instead of going on forever owned by an immortal corporation.) But this is trademark, and you have no more right to call your product "Godzilla" than you have to sell stories about a wizard named "Harry Potter".
They do own the trademark "Godzilla" and they need to protect it. "Cabzilla" shouldn't be regarded as infringing, but the picture certainly is, and re-labeling wine bottles is trivial. I would be predisposed to conclude that "Godzilla" is trademarked, but use of the "zilla" suffix for monsters is pretty much public domain by now, so I wouldn't have gone after Davezilla or Mozilla. They do have a clear-cut cause of action against anybody using the Godzilla image or the full name.
How would slashdotters feel if somebody started selling a Linux branded cabernet with a picture of Tux on it without permission?
Reply with a letter stating "That IP address is a Dynamic DHCP address handed out by an open Wireless Access Point, so I have no idea who was using it at the time. However, we are now putting in place measures to limit access." Then, if you can actually track down the IP to a specific user, beat them about the head and shoulders with a stout cluestick while repeating the mantra "Inappropriate or unauthorized use of the network will be result in severe consequences up to and including termination." Sounds like they're being reasonable here, which means if you can convince them that you are policing yourself, they won't feel the need to come barging in with lawyers to do your policing for you.
My understanding of Sterling-cycle engines is that the greater the delta in temperature between the heat source and the heat sink, the greater the efficiency. Mobile applications have only air for a heat sink, and thus are non-ideal. Where Sterling-cycle makes since is in a stationary generator, preferably on the coast, where you can pump up cold water from the depths to get your greatest heat differential. The ideal location would be the Hawaiian islands, with geothermal heat and deep ocean in close proximity. Obviously Dean Kamen has put more research into this than I have, but I really don't see this as a practical means of powering a car. As far a the Segway, at $5000 it is 10 times the price point at which it would catch on. Also, any rational mechanical engineer would simply have added a third wheel to the Segway to balance it, rather than relying on the sensors and computationally expensive methods the Segway uses.
Having your AI arbitrarily misspell important terms is not an effective way of passing the Turing Test. You fail. Your post was quite obviously generated by a machine.
Sure, but the Microsoft Butt hinge with integrally formed butt straps patent is still valid, so watch out for Microsoft cornering the world market on butt hinges! (I suspect Microsoft does have a fair number of hardware patents for mice, keyboards, etc.)
"more exciting is... the idea of resurrecting a neanderthal"
You know, I knew some slashdotters were desperate for a date, but I never suspected they were THAT desperate! On the bright side, they could do GEICO commercials without even using makeup!
But seriously, the prospect of bringing a flawed misfit sentient being into this world and explaining to them "oh, by the way, your species is extinct!" doesn't seem very humane or ethical to me. How would you feel if you were resurrected by some other primates as one of a handful of your kind 50,000 years hence? Be just a little alienated, don't you think?
My thoughts exactly... since these critters were apparently hunted into extinction by early humans, I can only surmise that they must have been really good eatin'! I'm sure we'll have no problem raising the money to clone these beasties if we just promise everybody that contributes a good mammoth meal. However, I think the $10 million estimate is way too low; this is a 100-year project since you're starting with an elephant surrogate and you don't have a true mammoth until you've gone through several generations. Even then, the poor things will be incredibly inbred, in addition to all the genetic flaws introduced during gene sequencing and gene splicing. I suspect one would have several false starts before you get a critter that is both viable and contains all that lip-smacking mammoth goodness!
Yeah, Lively is just like Second Life, only without the virtual sex... hence the epic fail. It is a difficult balance; you need to allow user created content to be successful as a virtual world, but if you do, then users are going to create a lot of crap that you don't want in your virtual world. Obviously some form of review or moderation is necessary, but nobody has made it work yet.
I have been working on two large enterprise class applications using their Flex/AIR framework...
I think I see your problem right there... there is nothing like using the right tools for the job, and this is nothing like using the right tools for the job.;-)
Porting the compiler is only part of the problem; you also have to port the run-time environment, which is even more work. I think the reason everybody thinks Android's Java sucks is that it is not compatible with J2EE, so Java apps written for other platforms may need to be rewritten for the new libraries. While I think being able to compile any language down to bytecode is great for portability, I still don't understand why we need so many different Virtual Machine implementations. JVM, Flash, Parrot VM... can't we just choose one decent VM and work on perfecting that? And I'm still waiting for a CPU with microcode that can directly execute some VM's bytecode, although compared to compile-on-demand it's probably not that much of a performance win.
This is why I'm actually pleased to see Microsoft pushing Silverlight; if nothing else, it forces Adobe to get off their ass and actually make the Flash 10 SDK available platforms other than Mac OS and Windows! I'm still waiting for Flash 8/Flash 9 content to work on my Wii and on my Android G1 phone, since almost all 'net video is using Flash now. (Looks like the Android Flash support will be there pretty soon. I still think Silverlight gave them a powerful incentive to get their act together on this.)
Half right. Working in a hospital is NOT a healthy lifestyle -- you work ridiculous shifts and come home with diseases all the time because you deal with sick people all day. However, RNs start at over $50K/year -- not bad for someone fresh out of nursing school! In fact, I believe RNs on average are paid better than IT workers. Granted, the pay and respect you get are crap compared to that of a doctor, but not every woman can afford to put themselves through med school.
Veterinary medicine is just as bad (must be the "OMG! Ponies!!!" effect). And fashion institutes are even worse, as in there are males attending, but they, uh, all tend to make Elton John look butch by comparison. Damn, why didn't I go to fashion school, where I could be the only straight male on campus... Of course, then I'd have a lot more understanding of the plight of women in IT, after having to fend off all the advances of the men at the Fashion Institute...
Wow. Despite being careful to select a gender-neutral nickname, now you've gone and pointed out to slashdotters that you're actually female... BIG MISTAKE! Heck, I'm even tempted to hit on you myself!;-)
When I went to engineering school in the early 80's, there were about 5 American women in the school, but the Malaysians and Taiwanese CS students were actually 50% female. Doesn't look like anything has changed since then... we're probably just getting fewer foreign students now that the "Department of Homeland Security" has made it harder to get into the country.
Yes, social ineptitude is a problem, but all the cases of blatant sexual harassment I've seen of female engineers has been done by managers or marketing guys (who were also married, by the way). Try to meet the nerds halfway -- understand that they went to engineering schools where guys outnumbered girls 5 to 1, so they never really learned to relate to female peers. I worked with a very attractive software engineer at Intel (hi Stacy!), and at times it certainly was a distraction. She was bright and very competent, so I respected her abilities and did my best not to make her feel uncomfortable despite the fact we were forced to work closely together. On her part, she wore a huge engagement ring and managed to work references to fiance into any casual conversations, to make it clear that she was not available. I also occasionally get "chatted up" by female coworkers; it doesn't necessarily mean that they are hitting on me, it might just be that they consider me a sympathetic ear to listen to their problems (of course, it doesn't help that I never wear my wedding ring). Generally, women are seen as more supportive and nurturing, so it is not surprising that after hours of solo programming, some people just need to take a break and talk to another human being. In short 1) try to put yourself in their place, 2) Constantly send out signals that you're not interested, and don't be subtle about it, 3) Don't assume that everybody that feels talking to you is a good way of getting away from the stress of their job is trying to get into your pants, and 4) if somebody does spend an inordinate amount of time hanging around your cubicle without valid business matters to discuss, do feel free to point out to their manager that apparently they don't have enough work to do. 5) I'm not staring at your boobs, I'm just trying to read the front of your tee-shirt. Can I help it if I'm a really slow reader? Also, bear in mind that for many of us, trying to be friendly and helpful to our coworkers but not get too attached or too friendly to someone who may be promoted or transferred at any time is a difficult balancing act, regardless of their gender.
Slashdot readers already know the best disaster recovery policy is to have multiple off-site backups. A human being is just a strand of DNA's mechanism for replicating itself; that DNA needs to figure out how to store copies of itself in enough places so that it is impossible to wipe out all the copies in any possible disaster. In short, we need to stop keeping all our eggs in this one little basket called "Earth".
...everything is up for voting upon in a democracy, and people tend to view those that have more as not fairly sharing the wealth or not giving them what they deserve. Which is why I'm in favor of "Equal Access" legislation that requires supermodels to go on just as many dates with homely computer geeks as they do with handsome movie actors and pop stars. I'm calling it the "Cowboy Neal Dating Fairness Act of 2008". I hope you will all support me in insuring this bill becomes law!
Slashdot Mirror
That's why I always plant samples of my worst enemies hair, skin, and (ewww!) bodily fluids all around my house, so that when somebody tries to frame me, they will wind up framing my enemies instead! But seriously, if somebody that hates you that much has access to your DNA samples, you've already got some serious problems! My advice to you would be to stop screwing people that want to frame you for murder! While this might make a great episode of CSI:Geek Squad, I'm pretty sure most of the readers of slashdot (and most other people living in the real world) don't have to worry too much about being framed this way for murder.
P.S. Is this the real reason some people want a genetically identical clone -- so they can blame all the rapes and murders they commit on the clone?
Sigh... if you're going to quote Douglas Adams, at least quote him correctly:
Ford: "It's unpleasantly like being drunk."
Arthur: "What's so unpleasant about being drunk?"
Ford: "You ask a glass of water."
--Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Chapter 6
Which is exactly my argument -- a wine called "Winix" is ok, but a wine called "Linux" is not.
You are confusing copyright with trademark. Should I be able to call my product "Coke"? After all, Coca-cola is even older than Godzilla! Yes, copyright should expire after a reasonable time, but since they are still making Godzilla movies (last one was in 2004) this is still a valuable trademark. Yes, "copyright" IP should become a public domain part of our culture the death of the original creator. (The simplest solution is to make copyright non-transferable to a corporation, so that it dies with the creator instead of going on forever owned by an immortal corporation.) But this is trademark, and you have no more right to call your product "Godzilla" than you have to sell stories about a wizard named "Harry Potter".
How would slashdotters feel if somebody started selling a Linux branded cabernet with a picture of Tux on it without permission?
Reply with a letter stating "That IP address is a Dynamic DHCP address handed out by an open Wireless Access Point, so I have no idea who was using it at the time. However, we are now putting in place measures to limit access." Then, if you can actually track down the IP to a specific user, beat them about the head and shoulders with a stout cluestick while repeating the mantra "Inappropriate or unauthorized use of the network will be result in severe consequences up to and including termination." Sounds like they're being reasonable here, which means if you can convince them that you are policing yourself, they won't feel the need to come barging in with lawyers to do your policing for you.
You've unwittingly stumbled upon Idle's plan to take over slashdot... soon ALL of slashdot will look like Idle! Muahahaha!
My understanding of Sterling-cycle engines is that the greater the delta in temperature between the heat source and the heat sink, the greater the efficiency. Mobile applications have only air for a heat sink, and thus are non-ideal. Where Sterling-cycle makes since is in a stationary generator, preferably on the coast, where you can pump up cold water from the depths to get your greatest heat differential. The ideal location would be the Hawaiian islands, with geothermal heat and deep ocean in close proximity. Obviously Dean Kamen has put more research into this than I have, but I really don't see this as a practical means of powering a car. As far a the Segway, at $5000 it is 10 times the price point at which it would catch on. Also, any rational mechanical engineer would simply have added a third wheel to the Segway to balance it, rather than relying on the sensors and computationally expensive methods the Segway uses.
Having your AI arbitrarily misspell important terms is not an effective way of passing the Turing Test. You fail. Your post was quite obviously generated by a machine.
Sure, but the Microsoft Butt hinge with integrally formed butt straps patent is still valid, so watch out for Microsoft cornering the world market on butt hinges! (I suspect Microsoft does have a fair number of hardware patents for mice, keyboards, etc.)
You know, I knew some slashdotters were desperate for a date, but I never suspected they were THAT desperate! On the bright side, they could do GEICO commercials without even using makeup!
But seriously, the prospect of bringing a flawed misfit sentient being into this world and explaining to them "oh, by the way, your species is extinct!" doesn't seem very humane or ethical to me. How would you feel if you were resurrected by some other primates as one of a handful of your kind 50,000 years hence? Be just a little alienated, don't you think?
My thoughts exactly... since these critters were apparently hunted into extinction by early humans, I can only surmise that they must have been really good eatin'! I'm sure we'll have no problem raising the money to clone these beasties if we just promise everybody that contributes a good mammoth meal. However, I think the $10 million estimate is way too low; this is a 100-year project since you're starting with an elephant surrogate and you don't have a true mammoth until you've gone through several generations. Even then, the poor things will be incredibly inbred, in addition to all the genetic flaws introduced during gene sequencing and gene splicing. I suspect one would have several false starts before you get a critter that is both viable and contains all that lip-smacking mammoth goodness!
Yeah, Lively is just like Second Life, only without the virtual sex... hence the epic fail. It is a difficult balance; you need to allow user created content to be successful as a virtual world, but if you do, then users are going to create a lot of crap that you don't want in your virtual world. Obviously some form of review or moderation is necessary, but nobody has made it work yet.
I think I see your problem right there... there is nothing like using the right tools for the job, and this is nothing like using the right tools for the job. ;-)
Porting the compiler is only part of the problem; you also have to port the run-time environment, which is even more work. I think the reason everybody thinks Android's Java sucks is that it is not compatible with J2EE, so Java apps written for other platforms may need to be rewritten for the new libraries. While I think being able to compile any language down to bytecode is great for portability, I still don't understand why we need so many different Virtual Machine implementations. JVM, Flash, Parrot VM... can't we just choose one decent VM and work on perfecting that? And I'm still waiting for a CPU with microcode that can directly execute some VM's bytecode, although compared to compile-on-demand it's probably not that much of a performance win.
This is why I'm actually pleased to see Microsoft pushing Silverlight; if nothing else, it forces Adobe to get off their ass and actually make the Flash 10 SDK available platforms other than Mac OS and Windows! I'm still waiting for Flash 8/Flash 9 content to work on my Wii and on my Android G1 phone, since almost all 'net video is using Flash now. (Looks like the Android Flash support will be there pretty soon. I still think Silverlight gave them a powerful incentive to get their act together on this.)
An African or a European swallow?
Half right. Working in a hospital is NOT a healthy lifestyle -- you work ridiculous shifts and come home with diseases all the time because you deal with sick people all day. However, RNs start at over $50K/year -- not bad for someone fresh out of nursing school! In fact, I believe RNs on average are paid better than IT workers. Granted, the pay and respect you get are crap compared to that of a doctor, but not every woman can afford to put themselves through med school.
Veterinary medicine is just as bad (must be the "OMG! Ponies!!!" effect). And fashion institutes are even worse, as in there are males attending, but they, uh, all tend to make Elton John look butch by comparison. Damn, why didn't I go to fashion school, where I could be the only straight male on campus... Of course, then I'd have a lot more understanding of the plight of women in IT, after having to fend off all the advances of the men at the Fashion Institute...
When I went to engineering school in the early 80's, there were about 5 American women in the school, but the Malaysians and Taiwanese CS students were actually 50% female. Doesn't look like anything has changed since then... we're probably just getting fewer foreign students now that the "Department of Homeland Security" has made it harder to get into the country.
Yes, social ineptitude is a problem, but all the cases of blatant sexual harassment I've seen of female engineers has been done by managers or marketing guys (who were also married, by the way). Try to meet the nerds halfway -- understand that they went to engineering schools where guys outnumbered girls 5 to 1, so they never really learned to relate to female peers. I worked with a very attractive software engineer at Intel (hi Stacy!), and at times it certainly was a distraction. She was bright and very competent, so I respected her abilities and did my best not to make her feel uncomfortable despite the fact we were forced to work closely together. On her part, she wore a huge engagement ring and managed to work references to fiance into any casual conversations, to make it clear that she was not available. I also occasionally get "chatted up" by female coworkers; it doesn't necessarily mean that they are hitting on me, it might just be that they consider me a sympathetic ear to listen to their problems (of course, it doesn't help that I never wear my wedding ring). Generally, women are seen as more supportive and nurturing, so it is not surprising that after hours of solo programming, some people just need to take a break and talk to another human being. In short 1) try to put yourself in their place, 2) Constantly send out signals that you're not interested, and don't be subtle about it, 3) Don't assume that everybody that feels talking to you is a good way of getting away from the stress of their job is trying to get into your pants, and 4) if somebody does spend an inordinate amount of time hanging around your cubicle without valid business matters to discuss, do feel free to point out to their manager that apparently they don't have enough work to do. 5) I'm not staring at your boobs, I'm just trying to read the front of your tee-shirt. Can I help it if I'm a really slow reader? Also, bear in mind that for many of us, trying to be friendly and helpful to our coworkers but not get too attached or too friendly to someone who may be promoted or transferred at any time is a difficult balancing act, regardless of their gender.
That nothing compared to this image sent back by the British probe
Slashdot readers already know the best disaster recovery policy is to have multiple off-site backups. A human being is just a strand of DNA's mechanism for replicating itself; that DNA needs to figure out how to store copies of itself in enough places so that it is impossible to wipe out all the copies in any possible disaster. In short, we need to stop keeping all our eggs in this one little basket called "Earth".
...everything is up for voting upon in a democracy, and people tend to view those that have more as not fairly sharing the wealth or not giving them what they deserve. Which is why I'm in favor of "Equal Access" legislation that requires supermodels to go on just as many dates with homely computer geeks as they do with handsome movie actors and pop stars. I'm calling it the "Cowboy Neal Dating Fairness Act of 2008". I hope you will all support me in insuring this bill becomes law!
Yeah, but it sucks coming home and finding out your house has melted... which seems to happen at least once a year.