I worked at LANL for one full semester and one summer in the 90's. My impression was there were many interesting people (many odd people) there working on interesting research. It was more like a university than a government institution - everyone submitting proposals to win grants to do research to pay the bills, but no teaching. And it's a very nice place to live, right next to a huge state park on one side, another park on the other side, and funky Santa Fe down "the hill". Skiing in the winter, hiking in the summer. It could easily be converted into a ski-resort if the US gov doesn't want it anymore.
What has surprized me is, given all this cool research, there doesn't seem to be much private industry that has taken root around the lab? The whole lab used to be govenment property accessible only to those with badges, so this wasn't possibly in the past... But now that things have opened up, I expected to hear more about spin-offs from the research done at LANL popping up as private companies around the lab, like at MIT or the NC research triangle? My only guess is that LANL is just too remote. I think if LANL was located in Albuquerque where it could be closer affiated with Univ. NM, or in some other large metropolitan area, it could do more to provide assistance and interaction with private industry. The LANL location was choosen originally for isolation and ability to secure the perimiter around the site. With its new mission in mind, this location doesn't work anymore.
Beyond the issue of encrypting the data sent, how could they guarantee that only the target company would receive the thumb drives. Couldn't employees of other companies pick them up too, and then they would receive data from these other companies? Or the employees of the target company would bring them home, use them on their home machines, compromising the home machine. This gets really messy. I think that what the security people did was pretty dangerous from a legal point of view.
Does this even apply to a database?
If someone goes thru the trouble of assembling the batting avergage for every player, and then creates a database out of it, I would think that database belongs to the person who created it. If they choose to sell it, that is their right. If they do not want to sell it to you, that is their choice.
I think it's a database the article is talking about, and not the "facts" themselves.
Let's say someone goes thru the trouble of being present at an event, recording the event, creating statistics for the event, and adding the data to a database. Now the information might be public domain. But the database which this person has created is intellectual property and it seems fair to me that the person who created the database should have some rights to it. For example, they should be able to sell the database to someone with an agreement that the buyer not sell the database to others. And if they want to only sell it to a single buyer in return for a large fee, that should be their right. Again, the facts are public information, but the database is not.
I think if some other outfit wants to keep track of the statistics and assemble their own DB, there is no rule that they cannot. But a database, because it is of publicly observable facts, does not become public property! For example, if you want a history of the stock market you can purchase a database with that information. But purchasing such a database from a seller does not then give you right to distribute it as you wish?
1) how do they know it's not addictive?
2) what are effects of long term usage?
3) how is it actually working?
The last one scares me the most. Can get permission to use the drug before they know how it is working?
I don't understand why the fuzziness of bluffing is such a challenge? It seems the computer just needs to:
1) be able to determine the odds based on the cards on the table.
2) have some ability to look at the other player's play style to identify patterns.
3) Use the patterns from 2, along with 1 and a look at the bids, to move the odds a little bit in each direction, thereby giving a fuzzy view of the odds encompasing the cards, the bids, and the playstyles.
4) add some randomness to the computer's bids to keep other players from being able to read the computer's hand based on its own bid.
Why is this so hard? The patterns do not seem as compicated as chess or the game of go. Clearly poker is a phychological game to humans, with a lot of emotions involved. But to a computer, the bidding should be reducable to another signal, to be processed based on probability and past experience. In fact, against a very very good player, it might be best to simply go back to the odds + some randomness and ignore the bids. Cause the bid of a very good player is just not going to offer a lot of information?
To quote one of my favorite films:
It can't be reasoned with, it can't be bargained with...it doesn't feel pity of remorse or fear... and it absolutely will not stop. Ever.
To really make things equal, my camera would have to be focused on the security guards monitoring the camera. Having the guards take pictures of me while I take pictures of their camera is not equal.
It is not impossible to predicate a projects cost. There it is not possible to appraise an IT groups performance.
If you have no way of appraising an underlings performance, what do you do? You say they are underperforming and tell them they better do better or else. If an executive were to give IT the benefit of the doubt, they might go lax, right?
Maybe the US can outsource it to another country that has more money to spend on research/space programs? Let them know how to run the thing and hand it over.
I have seen barebone PC kits that look a lot like the Apple mini being sold for several years now. But only do-it-yourself type PC builders use these. No PC manafacturers have bothered to sell finished systems using these cases.
I think Apple saw these stylish cases and recognized that they needed to be introduces to the regular Joe by creating a finished system using this form-factor. They deserve credit for introducing the case to the general consumer, but I don't see them as an innovator in this regard.
Shuttle Barebones:
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?desc ription=56-101-456&DEPA=1
Why doesn't Intel just show this?
I admit I have only watched a couple of the episodes, but I am confused by the Cylon's and why they seem to be toying with the humans so much. The human on Caprica is being toyed with by the asian chick cylong and the Baltair (sp?) is mentally dominated by the blonde chick cylon. Why don't they just kill the humans?
I used the web service "behavior" from Microsoft to acomplish asynchronous behind interaction with a web server. It functions the same way as this AJAX thing. But do you really want to go thru another layer for every single call to the web server? Or just when you first open a page?
On another note, MSFT's ASP.NET 2.0 will have a "Client Callback" mechanism that will allow you to do the same sort of thing - make calls from javascript to your web server using XMLHTTP.
I bought a 20GB IPod last week. The price was not reduced. And since it's personalized I cannot return it to get the $350 30GB IPod Photo version. Because the IPod is personalized, I cannot return it. Wish I had know.
Yes, um, sir, we would like to switch to a new version control system. No, it's not because of a problem with SourceSafe. Actually we stopped using SourceSafe several years ago. Yes, sorry we didn't inform you. Yes, we realize that cvs is not sold by Microsoft. Yes we would like to switch now. The new tool? It's another open source tool. Actually, it's called "Subversion".
I am excited about the new devices on the cusp of being released that offer traditional PDA functionality, cell phones, and WLAN connectivity, and broadband data capability all in one device. Throw in a camera and a micro-hard drive, and a GPS and you have an awesome device! And it seems to be just around the corner. Plus cost for a wireless broadband connection seems like it should hit $30/ mth shortly, which is the price point where people might switch from dial-up or current broadband to a wireless broadband?
So I don't think PDA's will die out. Rather they will be replaced by a more versitile class of devices that may include all the features of a traditional pocket organizer. In the end talking about PDA's dying out now while ignoring "Blackberry Like Devices" as a category is like talking about unnetworked PC's dying out 15 years ago while commenting on the explosion of PC's with dialup...
It will be exciting to see what killer apps develop as wireless broadband becomes more available. It's easy to guess that streaming music and video to your "PDA" will take off, but what else?
Slashdot Mirror
I worked at LANL for one full semester and one summer in the 90's. My impression was there were many interesting people (many odd people) there working on interesting research. It was more like a university than a government institution - everyone submitting proposals to win grants to do research to pay the bills, but no teaching. And it's a very nice place to live, right next to a huge state park on one side, another park on the other side, and funky Santa Fe down "the hill". Skiing in the winter, hiking in the summer. It could easily be converted into a ski-resort if the US gov doesn't want it anymore. What has surprized me is, given all this cool research, there doesn't seem to be much private industry that has taken root around the lab? The whole lab used to be govenment property accessible only to those with badges, so this wasn't possibly in the past... But now that things have opened up, I expected to hear more about spin-offs from the research done at LANL popping up as private companies around the lab, like at MIT or the NC research triangle? My only guess is that LANL is just too remote. I think if LANL was located in Albuquerque where it could be closer affiated with Univ. NM, or in some other large metropolitan area, it could do more to provide assistance and interaction with private industry. The LANL location was choosen originally for isolation and ability to secure the perimiter around the site. With its new mission in mind, this location doesn't work anymore.
Beyond the issue of encrypting the data sent, how could they guarantee that only the target company would receive the thumb drives. Couldn't employees of other companies pick them up too, and then they would receive data from these other companies? Or the employees of the target company would bring them home, use them on their home machines, compromising the home machine. This gets really messy. I think that what the security people did was pretty dangerous from a legal point of view.
I wonder if you could apply a 3rd party mod to the Sims to do something similar?
Does this even apply to a database? If someone goes thru the trouble of assembling the batting avergage for every player, and then creates a database out of it, I would think that database belongs to the person who created it. If they choose to sell it, that is their right. If they do not want to sell it to you, that is their choice. I think it's a database the article is talking about, and not the "facts" themselves.
Let's say someone goes thru the trouble of being present at an event, recording the event, creating statistics for the event, and adding the data to a database. Now the information might be public domain. But the database which this person has created is intellectual property and it seems fair to me that the person who created the database should have some rights to it. For example, they should be able to sell the database to someone with an agreement that the buyer not sell the database to others. And if they want to only sell it to a single buyer in return for a large fee, that should be their right. Again, the facts are public information, but the database is not.
I think if some other outfit wants to keep track of the statistics and assemble their own DB, there is no rule that they cannot. But a database, because it is of publicly observable facts, does not become public property! For example, if you want a history of the stock market you can purchase a database with that information. But purchasing such a database from a seller does not then give you right to distribute it as you wish?
And when are the French going to hand over control of the Minitel?
How do you come up with ideas for games?
1) how do they know it's not addictive? 2) what are effects of long term usage? 3) how is it actually working? The last one scares me the most. Can get permission to use the drug before they know how it is working?
I don't understand why the fuzziness of bluffing is such a challenge? It seems the computer just needs to: 1) be able to determine the odds based on the cards on the table. 2) have some ability to look at the other player's play style to identify patterns. 3) Use the patterns from 2, along with 1 and a look at the bids, to move the odds a little bit in each direction, thereby giving a fuzzy view of the odds encompasing the cards, the bids, and the playstyles. 4) add some randomness to the computer's bids to keep other players from being able to read the computer's hand based on its own bid. Why is this so hard? The patterns do not seem as compicated as chess or the game of go. Clearly poker is a phychological game to humans, with a lot of emotions involved. But to a computer, the bidding should be reducable to another signal, to be processed based on probability and past experience. In fact, against a very very good player, it might be best to simply go back to the odds + some randomness and ignore the bids. Cause the bid of a very good player is just not going to offer a lot of information? To quote one of my favorite films: It can't be reasoned with, it can't be bargained with...it doesn't feel pity of remorse or fear... and it absolutely will not stop. Ever.
To really make things equal, my camera would have to be focused on the security guards monitoring the camera. Having the guards take pictures of me while I take pictures of their camera is not equal.
Also checkout this audio from Spencer Wells on ITConversations
Audio of Presentation by Spencer Wells at Pop!Tech 2004
This site is great - free podcasts on interesting topics.
It is not impossible to predicate a projects cost. There it is not possible to appraise an IT groups performance. If you have no way of appraising an underlings performance, what do you do? You say they are underperforming and tell them they better do better or else. If an executive were to give IT the benefit of the doubt, they might go lax, right?
Maybe the US can outsource it to another country that has more money to spend on research/space programs? Let them know how to run the thing and hand it over.
I have seen barebone PC kits that look a lot like the Apple mini being sold for several years now. But only do-it-yourself type PC builders use these. No PC manafacturers have bothered to sell finished systems using these cases. I think Apple saw these stylish cases and recognized that they needed to be introduces to the regular Joe by creating a finished system using this form-factor. They deserve credit for introducing the case to the general consumer, but I don't see them as an innovator in this regard. Shuttle Barebones: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?desc ription=56-101-456&DEPA=1
Why doesn't Intel just show this?
I admit I have only watched a couple of the episodes, but I am confused by the Cylon's and why they seem to be toying with the humans so much. The human on Caprica is being toyed with by the asian chick cylong and the Baltair (sp?) is mentally dominated by the blonde chick cylon. Why don't they just kill the humans?
I used the web service "behavior" from Microsoft to acomplish asynchronous behind interaction with a web server. It functions the same way as this AJAX thing. But do you really want to go thru another layer for every single call to the web server? Or just when you first open a page? On another note, MSFT's ASP.NET 2.0 will have a "Client Callback" mechanism that will allow you to do the same sort of thing - make calls from javascript to your web server using XMLHTTP.
This is the sale of likely "wrong turns" on the information superhighway.
I bought a 20GB IPod last week. The price was not reduced. And since it's personalized I cannot return it to get the $350 30GB IPod Photo version. Because the IPod is personalized, I cannot return it. Wish I had know.
Yes, um, sir, we would like to switch to a new version control system. No, it's not because of a problem with SourceSafe. Actually we stopped using SourceSafe several years ago. Yes, sorry we didn't inform you. Yes, we realize that cvs is not sold by Microsoft. Yes we would like to switch now. The new tool? It's another open source tool. Actually, it's called "Subversion".
I am excited about the new devices on the cusp of being released that offer traditional PDA functionality, cell phones, and WLAN connectivity, and broadband data capability all in one device. Throw in a camera and a micro-hard drive, and a GPS and you have an awesome device! And it seems to be just around the corner. Plus cost for a wireless broadband connection seems like it should hit $30/ mth shortly, which is the price point where people might switch from dial-up or current broadband to a wireless broadband? So I don't think PDA's will die out. Rather they will be replaced by a more versitile class of devices that may include all the features of a traditional pocket organizer. In the end talking about PDA's dying out now while ignoring "Blackberry Like Devices" as a category is like talking about unnetworked PC's dying out 15 years ago while commenting on the explosion of PC's with dialup... It will be exciting to see what killer apps develop as wireless broadband becomes more available. It's easy to guess that streaming music and video to your "PDA" will take off, but what else?
Do they charge you a fee if you return it late?