Yeah, and while the UN is waiting for Hell to freeze over, maybe they could do something about that little matter in Africa. You know, the fucking GENOCIDE! When they're finished with that they could start on AIDs, the international arms market, the proliferation of WMDs, human slavery and violations of human rights, the harboring of terrorists by nation states, the international drug trade and, if they have a little spare time, the attitude of the French.
Ok, so maybe I got a little carried away, no one is EVER going to be able to do anything about the attitude of the French. These are tough problems that impact millions of people all over the world. The UN's track record for dealing with these problems does not inspire much confidence. Let's face it, there are some influential members of the UN who have opinions that are in opposition to the beliefs of the net's inventors. You see, we KNOW if our rascals start getting too big for their britches we can snatch them back to reality. Who knows what the UN has the power and will to accomplish? I don't, and I'm not in a hurry to find out. Maybe the UN should concentrate on the problems crying out for attention and hold off on this one until we actually do something wrong.
billy - quit bugging us or we won't let you use google
It says they enjoy all that good stuff, not that they will receive all that good stuff. I enjoy a guy getting a BJ from 3 women, but not as much as if I was the guy. Still, just knowing the possibility exists makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. And I take great comfort in knowing that the U.S. of A. is on the job and I'll be able to get back to that URL with the 3 women with no problem.
billy - hey...chill...wait til we fuck it up...THEN bitch
The technology, which is still being developed, can be classified as "nanotech" and is called "magnetic domain-wall logic" and is based on spintronics. Lots of folks are working on this because many believe that spintronics will allow for great advances in areas from quantum computing to DNA based molecular electronic devices. This particular development is important because it represents the first actual construction of logic gates, which are the basis of computing. So far the group has produced a "NOT gate" and a "11-stage serial shift register / digital frequency divider" in a 200nm design rule. They have also demonstrated the transfer of magnetic information without the use of magnetic fields. This paves the way for hybrid chips with both electronic and spintronic components. Such "3D chips" could contain many times the amount of information possible with current electronic chips. They will run cooler, with short "nanowire" pathways, and have the potential to surpass the performance of silicon chips. Moore's Law marches on.
billy - wonder if the "$100 laptop" guys have their phone number?
Hell, they probably got it from Negroponte in the first place. The Diamond Age came out in 1996. Wired in 1993. I read Neuromancer in 1984. Blame it on Gibson - and majoring in Psychology and Philosophy. That pretty much rules out anything BUT dreaming.
billy - hell, blame on the drugs, the sex and the rock-n-roll
"No, you missed the sarcasm. I don't quite know how, by the end it was laid on so thick that it oozed into the next post."
So was it a Comedy Buffer Overrun Exploit or a Brute Force Crack-Up Attack?
D(istinctly) D(evoid) O(f) S(incerity) maybe? I know it was too dry for Phishing.
I'm a little surprised at the lack of imagination I'm seeing in this article's comments. Imagination is not something usually lacking at/. In reality I suggest that no one here, or anywhere else, can possibly anticipate the uses that children will find for these machines. Remember, Negroponte is not talking about a million laptops spread out across the world. He intends to produce 200 MILLION laptops - "One Laptop per Child." These will be capable of p2p mesh networks over wifi and internet connection sharing. They will be Open Source. EVERY kid will have one. The shit those kids are gonna do with these machines is going to change the nature of the world. Just a few thoughts...
Personal interactions will flourish. Imagine that each person has a personal presence on the net in the form of a journal, blog, etc. Innermost thoughts, musings, ideas would be posted. Access may be restricted to groups of friends, open to all, available only in a reciprocal trade - who knows? Social interactions may form that are based on more formal public personae while the unspoken web content acts as an underlying frame. Like minds will find each other. Ideas will feed on ideas. It will be an exponential extension of today's net.
Specialties would develop. Mod kits would certainly turn up. This kid might make movies, or songs, or create one page descriptive biographies of everyone he meets. That kid might develop applications, this one tweaks assembler, another is a com whiz, and that one over there...she's special, she can go ANYWHERE in cyberspace, and if it's on the net, she can find it. She's the one they ask when they REALLY need to know the truth. It could be that some strange stuff starts to happen. Stuff about how the world is perceived and how humans relate to it and each other. Stuff we can't imagine or maybe even understand. Really, really cool Stuff.
We old folks can participate. Everyone seems to crave one of these laptops. What if they didn't sell even one outside their programs? What if to get one of these babies you had to earn it? You could help develop software. Write apps, ports, translate, tutor, teach, write textbooks, moderate groups, protect the children and their net. You could EARN the laptop. How cool would that be?
Who will pay? There will be new markets, development deals, service contracts, infrastructure to build. The companies that want to play will be the ones who pay. Governments could link contracts with obligations. You want to build out our backbone? It must include wifi for the kidtops at your expense. You want to build some buildings? We need housing for a server farm here and some schools here, here, and here. You want the support contract for the government IT infrastructure. You also must support Kidnet. At least till the kids take over,which won't be long. Access? Well how much is access to a 10 million node kidtop beowolf cluster worth? Wanna trade?
C'mon guys! This is the fucking DREAM! No more secrets. No more lies. No more disinformation and manipulation from 'those who would be kings'. Maybe even 200 million proud parents of the Earth's first planetary consciousness. Hey, who knows? Not us. We can't even BEGIN to imagine.
Unless you're a protesting student and they happen to have a tank handy. China respects the Internet for its financial power. They seek to use the aspects of the net that they deem beneficial and reject those they believe may support opposition to their control. The financial power represented by their huge potential market is their best tool to influence foreign powers. They can't really use military force against the major Western powers due to geographical factors (distance and oceans). Russian nuclear weapons stand between China and Europe. American forces and technology stand between China and Taiwan. Watch the Spratly Islands - we may see more Chinese military activity there. Make no mistake that the Chinese will use any weapon they can, be it military or financial, to take control of as much of Asia as possible. They consider that control to be their "manifest destiny" in much the same way America did when claiming its territory coast-to-coast. If they can't conquer some parts of it, they will attempt to buy them, or at least bribe the rest of the world to sit back and let it happen.
China wants to take its place as a superpower, equal to or superior to any other. They believe their cultural tradition makes them better than other cultures and that their current position in the world is largely due to Western interference, which they will no longer tolerate. They are playing a game with Western society, biding their time until they are in the right position to reveal their true face. In the meantime they will continue to manipulate the world market by controlling their currency, continue to take our money, and continue to spend it on modernizing their military. They will embrace ANY portion of the West's world that they deem valuable and discard any portion they do not. Of course that includes the internet. Too bad for them they don't really understand the true nature of the net. You may be able to ride it to fame and riches, but you can never really control it.
billy - and they're not the only people in power that are gonna find that out the hard way
Depending on your definition of robot, we may already have a "hive mind" controlled robot in operational use. The AEGIS Combat System is a combat control system that integrates a wide variety of sensors and weapon platforms into a single, computer controlled system. The central control computer receives data from linked sources such as radar arrays, satellites and aircraft located anywhere in the battle space. Using various algorithms, the system can track over 100 separate targets, assign priorities, choose the appropriate weapon from any of the assets under its command and target and fire the weapon remotely. An entire fleet of ships can thus act as one in presenting an integrated defense. Once the system is enabled the computer makes the individual decisions without human interaction. The humans just sit back and watch it go. That's pretty close to a hive mind. AEGIS has been around for about thirty years.
There are also examples of "fire and forget" weapons that may be classified as robots, although not in the traditional sense. Sea mines exist that can hover, scan the area with passive sonar and deploy only when certain conditions are met. These conditions can include the detection of the acoustic signature of a single ship or group of ships. Missiles and torpedoes can lock on to a target and independently proceed to an intercept, dealing with evasive behavior and counter-measures. Some munitions, upon losing target lock, can throttle down and cruise in search patterns in the attempt to reacquire the original target or aquire a new target of opportunity. Once any of these weapons is fired, they proceed without further human input.
The reason any of these weapons can be safely (well, safely in a battlefield sense) used is that they are confined to limited areas that are designated "free-fire zones" or are capable of differentiating between targets. That's fairly easy for ships and planes, not so easy for troops on the ground. It's easy to see how robot controlled guns could be used to repulse waves of attackers advancing through no-man's land. It's less clear how they would tell the difference between probing enemy scouts and a lost squad of their own men. Initial deployment might be on the basis of "go over HERE and let me know when you get there or detect anything on the way". Options might include "laser illuminate THIS target until follow-on munitions arrive then return to base" or "let me know if THIS target proceeds in THIS direction". It should also be remembered that acceptable levels of safety are quite different in times of war and on the battlefield. "Let loose the bots" may become the last ditch effort of desperate men.
billy - AEGIS is currently being migrated to Open Software...could it be...Linux?
Thank you for walking into the buzz saw in the interest of truth, logic and common sense. I salute you.
A moments reflection is sufficient to recognize that it is not the content contained in ANY given delivery format that is purchased, but the ACCESS to that content using that format. You wouldn't expect CDs to be backward compatible with cassette tapes. You can't play a CD containing content formatted in MP3 in regular CD players - your equipment has to include another, separate, processor that is NOT part of the CD standard. For instance, I cannot download an MP3 version of a song, burn it to a CD-R as a digital file, and play it in the Alpine CD player in my 5 year old Honda. Most professional quality recording studios now use 24bit/192kHz sampling when recording and processing digital audio content. Neither the CD standard or commonly used MPEG formats deliver the same information present in the master content file. Instead the content is delivered in a format compatible with the equipment for which it is designed. Trained listeners have no problem differentiating MP3 playback from CD playback and CD playback from playback using any of the proprietary professional audio formats. It is entirely up to the producer of the music which formats are offered for purchase. Buying a CD does not in some way entitle me to the content contained in the 192kHz wav file master. Similarly, I can't play an X-Box game on my PS2. My purchase of the game and my ownership of the PS does not make the producer of the game obliged to make THEIR game work on MY hardware. And now, because content providers have a legitimate concern that their content will be illegally copied and distributed, every format available will have DRM components. Thanks P2P. Thanks third-world pirates. Thanks all you "freedom fighters" whose arguments seem to eventually reduce to "it's too expensive", "they make too much money" and "ah...evil...evil...fight evil...take it for free". Thanks, mercenary lawyers of the RIAA, most of whom have never produced original, much less, creative content in their lives. The truth is that most of the arguments presented by both sides of this war are greedy, self-serving, bullshit. By ignoring the valid points raised by their opponents, both factions have lost their credibility and the respect of reasonable, rational, thinkers. A pox on both your houses.
Dude, you missed it again. Not only do they explain exactly why they use the form of a brush, they list and discuss other possible interfaces. They give examples of other approaches to human interaction with new technologies. They also explain their desire to recreate the link between colors on the 'canvas' and everyday life that painters experienced when making the various colors of paint with physical ingredients. Just as a painter picks up paint with a brush, the IO Brush picks up attributes from the environment. In the same way the paint brush allows for varied techniques when applying the paint to the canvas, the IO Brush allows various techniques to be used when applying the captured attributes. The act of 'picking it up' and 'painting it on' is the entire focus of the project. Go back and read the paper again. In one paragraph you adamantly state that "the only thing even resembling an argument as to why this means it should *look* or *feel* like a brush is that a brush was was one of the few (perhaps only) existing tools which we let touch our bodies." RTFP and you will see that this statement is factually incorrect. In fact, your entire rebuttal is as devoid of validity as your first post. You accuse me of not taking the time to understand your argument. You HAD NO ARGUMENT! Your premises were based on opinions you formed with a cursory examination of the project. You didn't understand the projects purpose, the underlying conceptual framework or the implementation of the technology. You still don't. Yet you felt it appropriate to post a criticism on a public forum. Read the title of your first post, "Slavish replication of physical tools", you know, the one where you use the words "silly" and "unimaginative" and suggest that "it may be too much to hope that the designers would ever see" that new technologies might require new interfaces. Oh please, go ahead and hope. That's exactly the specialty of this group of designers. The group you were dissing. If you're gonna post lame ass attacks that have no basis in an honest attempt to understand your subject, you better get used to the possibility that you might get called out. At least if I'm in the mood. If you think my response, including quotes from you and multiple supporting links, was "briefly considered" because I disagree with you, you're wrong. I responded because, in this particular instance, you're clueless but still felt the need to insult people who are not. There's way too much of that shit in the world today.
billy - hey, look on the bright side...at least you are living up to your nick
.
Seems like there's been an awful lot of servers flying around in planes lately. First Sun over Dell and now the Holy Kernal is fleeing California. Could there be more to this than meets the eye? What if these servers have their own agenda? Were the "giddy" geeks the victims of mechanistic mind meddling? Could the servers be dispersing as a "pretakeover" precaution? Could they be preparing for the Great Crash? Could the Holy Kernal have been installed ON TOP of the Mozilla boxes for a reason? Was the Sun server recruiting? Could the first AI have awoken?
Consider another explanation. Pretend the folks who developed the brush worked at the MIT Media Lab. Pretend that they had spent a lot of time thinking about the whole "brush thing". They do a lot of thinking up there - kinda famous for it. If they DID have good reasons for the design, instead of just being "silly", then surely they would have published some sort of academic paper. Them being at MIT and all. They could be very highly accomplished people who have worked on other projects like this one. Could even be in a museum. Or on the Discovery Channel Website. Pretending that all those things were true, wouldn't it also be true that the brush was probably not an "unimaginative copy "which was "silly at best", probably not a "necessery evil to get funding and potentially have the technology picked up by other adults" and not really designed to "make the kids feel at ease" after all. Consider that someone describing the project in those terms either didn't try to or was incapable of understanding the project. Consider that publicly suggesting that they half-assed their interface, compromised for monetary and political reasons, and wound up with something that is little more than a toy is both rude, stupid and illustrates a complete lack of understanding.
This project, particularly the way it addresses sensory/cognitive synthesis has implications in many fields - not the least of which are child development, digital art, interface design, artificial intelligence and the study of how physical reality and abstract thought interact. It also makes REALLY cool pictures. Take a look at one of the videos (at the bottom) and all will become clear. And don't worry about us adults impeding the children's progress - they're already way ahead of us.
"(Note this isn't a real criticism just a general observation and nit picking)"
"what does it really have to offer that is a big improvement on XP"
Introducing:
WINDOWS ON THE WORLD CLUB
brought to you by... AOL PREMIUM BROADBAND
Offering exclusive on-line content, innovative communications integration featuring IM Podcasting w/ embedded Media Center Technology, real time tech support and cutting edge search capability on and off the web!
Hey, 24.7 million subscribers who routinely let AOL download and install whatever it wants without the slightest clue about what it is and what it does can't be wrong. It will be painless - you won't have a clue how often you're getting patched. Microsoft is in the content business. Be afraid...be very afraid.
billy - resistance is....what the hell I am thinking...this is AOL..you're not gonna resist
The laptop is stolen in San Francisco. It is sold to a guy in South Carolina in an online auction. He calls tech support in...India(?) In seconds the tech support guy knows the laptop is stolen.
You can use any source you want in court. You can have doctors say smoking doesn't cause cancer, engineers say blown tires don't cause accidents and psychologists claim the defendent was insane because she was suffering from PMS when she drove her car into the lake with her 3 kids in the backseat. The other party is equally free to dispute the validity of your witness. The judge decides if the witness is qualified as an 'expert'. Finally, if you get that far, the jury decides.
By the way, the fact that data can be changed may suggest that it should be carefully reviewed, but it can in no way be logically used to assign value. "Today's Date" is a good example.
You're right about the response letter. As for sources? Look again. The problem with using wikipedia and google as sources wasn't that Intellectual Property Australia rejected them as qualified or legitimate. The problem was that they did not support Linux Mark Institute's argument. In fact, they did the opposite. The IPA is denying the application, in part, because of the existence of too many other legitimate uses of the name. Both wiki and google established the widespread inclusion of the name in many products offered by many different companies. In other words - "linux" is too generic a term to restrict its use to one entity.
This response did not bother LMI. They were basically protecting the name from abusers by claiming it first. If they can't restrict use of the term, neither can anyone else. In this one case, the IPA seems to have made an informed and reasonable decision.
Don't try to explain that to the poster of the article. I have no idea whether stupidity or irrational bias accounts for the poster's inflamatory slant. I'm sitting on some mod points right now, if I could figure a way I'd slap 5 big 'T's on this article, although 'KW' might be more appropriate.
Whoa there pardner!
Please be a little more careful with your research!
Bush did not single out black people, he was after anyone with no country club membership who also owned waterfront property.
Everybody knows that Bush singlehandedly created Katrina to clear away the pesky low-lifers to make way for him and his friends to develop the Gulf Coast into something "even more vibrant than before". It's careless fact checking like this that gives Bush a bad name. Well, that and WMD fantasies, fat cat tax cuts, intelligent design fud, record deficit spending, Karl Rove...
Please be a little more careful with your research!
This rule only applies if you masturbate WITH the kitten.
Otherwise the kitten just gets a nasty case of indigestion and a mild head cold. It's careless fact checking like this that gives God a bad name. Well, that and polio, plagues, the pox, pedophile priests...
billy - so how bored DO you have to be to invent that whole gerbil thing?
There is a persistent widely believed rumor in the telco community that goes like this:
People make mistakes, especially when punching phone numbers into key pads. How many times has it happened to you? A finger slips and the number you enter is off by one digit. Often you don't even notice. Well who do think owns the phone numbers represented by all the one-digit-off combinations of a certain popular 1-800 discount collect call service? Hey it's a service, if you mess up a little you still get the benefit of the state of the art network, ensuring a great connection for your important call. Except instead of answering with the company's name the operator just asks for the number for your collect call. Same network, same call center, just different subsidiaries of the same giant multinational Telco conglomerate. Oh...and different rates. Who's gonna know? They don't make the call and you don't see the bill. Of course seeing the bill might not help much. Did you know there are successful businesses hired by major companies to do nothing but make sure their phone bills are correct? And they will guarantee your savings will cover their fees. I stopped doing business after 4 years with my cell provider when some of their top executives continued in their jobs after being indicted for billing fraud. My phone bill payments were being used to pay for the legal defense of someone charged with stealing from...ME!
Now I'm not saying the 1-800# story is true. I haven't looked into it at all. Do I have a hard time believing it's true? Based on only my actual, personal experiences with 'the phone company'...I have a lot harder time believing it's NOT.
billy - "don't worry operator, I'm not going to go 'sprintal' on you"
It actually goes much deeper. China is a huge market about to explode into a growth surge beyond imagination. Opportunities exist within a narrow window for both MS and Google to establish partnerships and business relationships with the companies that will become the movers and shakers in China for the next century. It will be a challenge to any company to adapt their business methods to the local environment, deal with a government much different from their experience, and earn trust and market share from the Chinese people. China also represents a huge potential source of IT talent just waiting for a direction. Google and MS will be competing for the Gorden Bells, Dan Bricklins, Gates, Jobs, Allens and Wozs of China. Influencing the directions taken in the creation of the Chinese IT industry is the equivalent of influencing the next major stage in the evolution of a connected World - and arguably the next stage in human evolution. It's an opportunity to create a new paradigm from the ground up. And there will be money. Unholy low Earth orbit high shitpiles of money.
Of course all this starts with the boots-on-the-ground presence. Google has chosen Kai-Fu Lee as their point man. He joins a growing group at the core of Google that includes some of the most influential and experienced people in the IT community. Coupled with Google's track record in product development and unique corporate culture, this collection of talent establishes Google as a driving force in the industry. It also validates Google's reputation for having its heart in the right place. Lee will bring Google and the Google vision to China. He will be one of the people shaping the relationship between China and the rest of the world. He could work anywhere. Microsoft wanted him so bad they sued to keep him. He chose Google. And he left MS, lawsuits and all. If he never speaks of his experience at MS again, he has already made a powerful statement. And if he can earn the trust of the Chinese people and government, Mr. Lee, and Google, will make many more.
billy - most noncompete contracts in the mainstream business community are about the relationships with a company's clients...to prevent you from moving to another company and taking your customers with you
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, and while the UN is waiting for Hell to freeze over, maybe they could do something about that little matter in Africa. You know, the fucking GENOCIDE! When they're finished with that they could start on AIDs, the international arms market, the proliferation of WMDs, human slavery and violations of human rights, the harboring of terrorists by nation states, the international drug trade and, if they have a little spare time, the attitude of the French.
Ok, so maybe I got a little carried away, no one is EVER going to be able to do anything about the attitude of the French. These are tough problems that impact millions of people all over the world. The UN's track record for dealing with these problems does not inspire much confidence. Let's face it, there are some influential members of the UN who have opinions that are in opposition to the beliefs of the net's inventors. You see, we KNOW if our rascals start getting too big for their britches we can snatch them back to reality. Who knows what the UN has the power and will to accomplish? I don't, and I'm not in a hurry to find out. Maybe the UN should concentrate on the problems crying out for attention and hold off on this one until we actually do something wrong.
billy - quit bugging us or we won't let you use google
It says they enjoy all that good stuff, not that they will receive all that good stuff. I enjoy a guy getting a BJ from 3 women, but not as much as if I was the guy. Still, just knowing the possibility exists makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. And I take great comfort in knowing that the U.S. of A. is on the job and I'll be able to get back to that URL with the 3 women with no problem.
billy - hey...chill...wait til we fuck it up...THEN bitch
How about 100 GB of storage capacity for the cost of a memory card ? Magnetic microchips used in cell phones could make them fully functional video cameras. In addition, the chips are non-volatile, so startup lag will become a not-so-fond memory. They use much less power than electronic chips. They can be made much smaller, possibly as small as a few atoms. The examples they have already fabricated "use no silicon and require no multilayer processing and so can be manufactured at very low cost on flexible substrates, while offering non-volatility, radiation hardness and several hundreds of MHz of bandwidth" . They're talking about plastic chips. Pretty impressive.
The technology, which is still being developed, can be classified as "nanotech" and is called "magnetic domain-wall logic" and is based on spintronics. Lots of folks are working on this because many believe that spintronics will allow for great advances in areas from quantum computing to DNA based molecular electronic devices. This particular development is important because it represents the first actual construction of logic gates, which are the basis of computing. So far the group has produced a "NOT gate" and a "11-stage serial shift register / digital frequency divider" in a 200nm design rule. They have also demonstrated the transfer of magnetic information without the use of magnetic fields. This paves the way for hybrid chips with both electronic and spintronic components. Such "3D chips" could contain many times the amount of information possible with current electronic chips. They will run cooler, with short "nanowire" pathways, and have the potential to surpass the performance of silicon chips. Moore's Law marches on.
billy - wonder if the "$100 laptop" guys have their phone number?
Too late now.
Hell, they probably got it from Negroponte in the first place. The Diamond Age came out in 1996. Wired in 1993. I read Neuromancer in 1984. Blame it on Gibson - and majoring in Psychology and Philosophy. That pretty much rules out anything BUT dreaming.
billy - hell, blame on the drugs, the sex and the rock-n-roll
"No, you missed the sarcasm. I don't quite know how, by the end it was laid on so thick that it oozed into the next post."
So was it a Comedy Buffer Overrun Exploit or a Brute Force Crack-Up Attack? D(istinctly) D(evoid) O(f) S(incerity) maybe? I know it was too dry for Phishing.
billy - Karma Engineering?
I'm a little surprised at the lack of imagination I'm seeing in this article's comments. Imagination is not something usually lacking at
Personal interactions will flourish. Imagine that each person has a personal presence on the net in the form of a journal, blog, etc. Innermost thoughts, musings, ideas would be posted. Access may be restricted to groups of friends, open to all, available only in a reciprocal trade - who knows? Social interactions may form that are based on more formal public personae while the unspoken web content acts as an underlying frame. Like minds will find each other. Ideas will feed on ideas. It will be an exponential extension of today's net.
Specialties would develop. Mod kits would certainly turn up. This kid might make movies, or songs, or create one page descriptive biographies of everyone he meets. That kid might develop applications, this one tweaks assembler, another is a com whiz, and that one over there...she's special, she can go ANYWHERE in cyberspace, and if it's on the net, she can find it. She's the one they ask when they REALLY need to know the truth. It could be that some strange stuff starts to happen. Stuff about how the world is perceived and how humans relate to it and each other. Stuff we can't imagine or maybe even understand. Really, really cool Stuff.
We old folks can participate. Everyone seems to crave one of these laptops. What if they didn't sell even one outside their programs? What if to get one of these babies you had to earn it? You could help develop software. Write apps, ports, translate, tutor, teach, write textbooks, moderate groups, protect the children and their net. You could EARN the laptop. How cool would that be?
Who will pay? There will be new markets, development deals, service contracts, infrastructure to build. The companies that want to play will be the ones who pay. Governments could link contracts with obligations. You want to build out our backbone? It must include wifi for the kidtops at your expense. You want to build some buildings? We need housing for a server farm here and some schools here, here, and here. You want the support contract for the government IT infrastructure. You also must support Kidnet. At least till the kids take over,which won't be long. Access? Well how much is access to a 10 million node kidtop beowolf cluster worth? Wanna trade?
C'mon guys! This is the fucking DREAM! No more secrets. No more lies. No more disinformation and manipulation from 'those who would be kings'. Maybe even 200 million proud parents of the Earth's first planetary consciousness. Hey, who knows? Not us. We can't even BEGIN to imagine.
billy - I for one will sit back and watch 'em go
BRAVO!
Holes in the neck? Sounds like it could have been bangsticks. Or vampire moray eels.
billy - they're territorial, you know
Could THIS be what you seek? Or maybe you'd prefer it in BOOKMARKLET form?
billy - no,no...think nothing of it...I know I do
Yes they would. Blue/green lasers are used for underwater communications and detection.
billy - I never underestimate the stupidity of our government
"China seems usually slow to use their power"
Unless you're a protesting student and they happen to have a tank handy. China respects the Internet for its financial power. They seek to use the aspects of the net that they deem beneficial and reject those they believe may support opposition to their control. The financial power represented by their huge potential market is their best tool to influence foreign powers. They can't really use military force against the major Western powers due to geographical factors (distance and oceans). Russian nuclear weapons stand between China and Europe. American forces and technology stand between China and Taiwan. Watch the Spratly Islands - we may see more Chinese military activity there. Make no mistake that the Chinese will use any weapon they can, be it military or financial, to take control of as much of Asia as possible. They consider that control to be their "manifest destiny" in much the same way America did when claiming its territory coast-to-coast. If they can't conquer some parts of it, they will attempt to buy them, or at least bribe the rest of the world to sit back and let it happen.
China wants to take its place as a superpower, equal to or superior to any other. They believe their cultural tradition makes them better than other cultures and that their current position in the world is largely due to Western interference, which they will no longer tolerate. They are playing a game with Western society, biding their time until they are in the right position to reveal their true face. In the meantime they will continue to manipulate the world market by controlling their currency, continue to take our money, and continue to spend it on modernizing their military. They will embrace ANY portion of the West's world that they deem valuable and discard any portion they do not. Of course that includes the internet. Too bad for them they don't really understand the true nature of the net. You may be able to ride it to fame and riches, but you can never really control it.
billy - and they're not the only people in power that are gonna find that out the hard way
"Hive-like would be a wet-dream"
Depending on your definition of robot, we may already have a "hive mind" controlled robot in operational use. The AEGIS Combat System is a combat control system that integrates a wide variety of sensors and weapon platforms into a single, computer controlled system. The central control computer receives data from linked sources such as radar arrays, satellites and aircraft located anywhere in the battle space. Using various algorithms, the system can track over 100 separate targets, assign priorities, choose the appropriate weapon from any of the assets under its command and target and fire the weapon remotely. An entire fleet of ships can thus act as one in presenting an integrated defense. Once the system is enabled the computer makes the individual decisions without human interaction. The humans just sit back and watch it go. That's pretty close to a hive mind. AEGIS has been around for about thirty years.
There are also examples of "fire and forget" weapons that may be classified as robots, although not in the traditional sense. Sea mines exist that can hover, scan the area with passive sonar and deploy only when certain conditions are met. These conditions can include the detection of the acoustic signature of a single ship or group of ships. Missiles and torpedoes can lock on to a target and independently proceed to an intercept, dealing with evasive behavior and counter-measures. Some munitions, upon losing target lock, can throttle down and cruise in search patterns in the attempt to reacquire the original target or aquire a new target of opportunity. Once any of these weapons is fired, they proceed without further human input.
The reason any of these weapons can be safely (well, safely in a battlefield sense) used is that they are confined to limited areas that are designated "free-fire zones" or are capable of differentiating between targets. That's fairly easy for ships and planes, not so easy for troops on the ground. It's easy to see how robot controlled guns could be used to repulse waves of attackers advancing through no-man's land. It's less clear how they would tell the difference between probing enemy scouts and a lost squad of their own men. Initial deployment might be on the basis of "go over HERE and let me know when you get there or detect anything on the way". Options might include "laser illuminate THIS target until follow-on munitions arrive then return to base" or "let me know if THIS target proceeds in THIS direction". It should also be remembered that acceptable levels of safety are quite different in times of war and on the battlefield. "Let loose the bots" may become the last ditch effort of desperate men.
billy - AEGIS is currently being migrated to Open Software...could it be...Linux?
Thank you for walking into the buzz saw in the interest of truth, logic and common sense. I salute you.
A moments reflection is sufficient to recognize that it is not the content contained in ANY given delivery format that is purchased, but the ACCESS to that content using that format. You wouldn't expect CDs to be backward compatible with cassette tapes. You can't play a CD containing content formatted in MP3 in regular CD players - your equipment has to include another, separate, processor that is NOT part of the CD standard. For instance, I cannot download an MP3 version of a song, burn it to a CD-R as a digital file, and play it in the Alpine CD player in my 5 year old Honda. Most professional quality recording studios now use 24bit/192kHz sampling when recording and processing digital audio content. Neither the CD standard or commonly used MPEG formats deliver the same information present in the master content file. Instead the content is delivered in a format compatible with the equipment for which it is designed. Trained listeners have no problem differentiating MP3 playback from CD playback and CD playback from playback using any of the proprietary professional audio formats. It is entirely up to the producer of the music which formats are offered for purchase. Buying a CD does not in some way entitle me to the content contained in the 192kHz wav file master. Similarly, I can't play an X-Box game on my PS2. My purchase of the game and my ownership of the PS does not make the producer of the game obliged to make THEIR game work on MY hardware. And now, because content providers have a legitimate concern that their content will be illegally copied and distributed, every format available will have DRM components. Thanks P2P. Thanks third-world pirates. Thanks all you "freedom fighters" whose arguments seem to eventually reduce to "it's too expensive", "they make too much money" and "ah...evil...evil...fight evil...take it for free". Thanks, mercenary lawyers of the RIAA, most of whom have never produced original, much less, creative content in their lives. The truth is that most of the arguments presented by both sides of this war are greedy, self-serving, bullshit. By ignoring the valid points raised by their opponents, both factions have lost their credibility and the respect of reasonable, rational, thinkers. A pox on both your houses.
billy - reality...what a concept
Hi Chad! You are kewl. Real leet. I have no training but think about this shit alot. Well, check you later. Maybe someday I will be as kewl as you!
P.s. exactly where did you say you lived again?
billy - knock, knock
Dude, you missed it again. Not only do they explain exactly why they use the form of a brush, they list and discuss other possible interfaces. They give examples of other approaches to human interaction with new technologies. They also explain their desire to recreate the link between colors on the 'canvas' and everyday life that painters experienced when making the various colors of paint with physical ingredients. Just as a painter picks up paint with a brush, the IO Brush picks up attributes from the environment. In the same way the paint brush allows for varied techniques when applying the paint to the canvas, the IO Brush allows various techniques to be used when applying the captured attributes. The act of 'picking it up' and 'painting it on' is the entire focus of the project. Go back and read the paper again. In one paragraph you adamantly state that "the only thing even resembling an argument as to why this means it should *look* or *feel* like a brush is that a brush was was one of the few (perhaps only) existing tools which we let touch our bodies." RTFP and you will see that this statement is factually incorrect. In fact, your entire rebuttal is as devoid of validity as your first post. You accuse me of not taking the time to understand your argument. You HAD NO ARGUMENT! Your premises were based on opinions you formed with a cursory examination of the project. You didn't understand the projects purpose, the underlying conceptual framework or the implementation of the technology. You still don't. Yet you felt it appropriate to post a criticism on a public forum. Read the title of your first post, "Slavish replication of physical tools", you know, the one where you use the words "silly" and "unimaginative" and suggest that "it may be too much to hope that the designers would ever see" that new technologies might require new interfaces. Oh please, go ahead and hope. That's exactly the specialty of this group of designers. The group you were dissing. If you're gonna post lame ass attacks that have no basis in an honest attempt to understand your subject, you better get used to the possibility that you might get called out. At least if I'm in the mood. If you think my response, including quotes from you and multiple supporting links, was "briefly considered" because I disagree with you, you're wrong. I responded because, in this particular instance, you're clueless but still felt the need to insult people who are not. There's way too much of that shit in the world today.
billy - hey, look on the bright side...at least you are living up to your nick .
Seems like there's been an awful lot of servers flying around in planes lately. First Sun over Dell and now the Holy Kernal is fleeing California. Could there be more to this than meets the eye? What if these servers have their own agenda? Were the "giddy" geeks the victims of mechanistic mind meddling? Could the servers be dispersing as a "pretakeover" precaution? Could they be preparing for the Great Crash? Could the Holy Kernal have been installed ON TOP of the Mozilla boxes for a reason? Was the Sun server recruiting? Could the first AI have awoken?
And yes...it does run Linux.
billy - 'I for one...'
Consider another explanation. Pretend the folks who developed the brush worked at the MIT Media Lab. Pretend that they had spent a lot of time thinking about the whole "brush thing". They do a lot of thinking up there - kinda famous for it. If they DID have good reasons for the design, instead of just being "silly", then surely they would have published some sort of academic paper. Them being at MIT and all. They could be very highly accomplished people who have worked on other projects like this one. Could even be in a museum. Or on the Discovery Channel Website. Pretending that all those things were true, wouldn't it also be true that the brush was probably not an "unimaginative copy "which was "silly at best", probably not a "necessery evil to get funding and potentially have the technology picked up by other adults" and not really designed to "make the kids feel at ease" after all. Consider that someone describing the project in those terms either didn't try to or was incapable of understanding the project. Consider that publicly suggesting that they half-assed their interface, compromised for monetary and political reasons, and wound up with something that is little more than a toy is both rude, stupid and illustrates a complete lack of understanding.
This project, particularly the way it addresses sensory/cognitive synthesis has implications in many fields - not the least of which are child development, digital art, interface design, artificial intelligence and the study of how physical reality and abstract thought interact. It also makes REALLY cool pictures. Take a look at one of the videos (at the bottom) and all will become clear. And don't worry about us adults impeding the children's progress - they're already way ahead of us.
"(Note this isn't a real criticism just a general observation and nit picking)"
billy - "what do expect on
"what does it really have to offer that is a big improvement on XP"
Introducing:
WINDOWS ON THE WORLD CLUB
brought to you by... AOL PREMIUM BROADBAND
Offering exclusive on-line content, innovative communications integration featuring IM Podcasting w/ embedded Media Center Technology, real time tech support and cutting edge search capability on and off the web!
Powered by Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Edition
Hey, 24.7 million subscribers who routinely let AOL download and install whatever it wants without the slightest clue about what it is and what it does can't be wrong. It will be painless - you won't have a clue how often you're getting patched. Microsoft is in the content business. Be afraid...be very afraid.
billy - resistance is
Only on
The laptop is stolen in San Francisco. It is sold to a guy in South Carolina in an online auction. He calls tech support in...India(?) In seconds the tech support guy knows the laptop is stolen.
This is the low-tech approach?
billy - see...I warned you about tech support
You can use any source you want in court. You can have doctors say smoking doesn't cause cancer, engineers say blown tires don't cause accidents and psychologists claim the defendent was insane because she was suffering from PMS when she drove her car into the lake with her 3 kids in the backseat. The other party is equally free to dispute the validity of your witness. The judge decides if the witness is qualified as an 'expert'. Finally, if you get that far, the jury decides.
By the way, the fact that data can be changed may suggest that it should be carefully reviewed, but it can in no way be logically used to assign value. "Today's Date" is a good example.
billy - it's from
You're right about the response letter. As for sources? Look again. The problem with using wikipedia and google as sources wasn't that Intellectual Property Australia rejected them as qualified or legitimate. The problem was that they did not support Linux Mark Institute's argument. In fact, they did the opposite. The IPA is denying the application, in part, because of the existence of too many other legitimate uses of the name. Both wiki and google established the widespread inclusion of the name in many products offered by many different companies. In other words - "linux" is too generic a term to restrict its use to one entity.
This response did not bother LMI. They were basically protecting the name from abusers by claiming it first. If they can't restrict use of the term, neither can anyone else. In this one case, the IPA seems to have made an informed and reasonable decision.
Don't try to explain that to the poster of the article. I have no idea whether stupidity or irrational bias accounts for the poster's inflamatory slant. I'm sitting on some mod points right now, if I could figure a way I'd slap 5 big 'T's on this article, although 'KW' might be more appropriate.
billy - remember the boy who cried 'wolf'?
Whoa there pardner! Please be a little more careful with your research!
Bush did not single out black people, he was after anyone with no country club membership who also owned waterfront property.
Everybody knows that Bush singlehandedly created Katrina to clear away the pesky low-lifers to make way for him and his friends to develop the Gulf Coast into something "even more vibrant than before". It's careless fact checking like this that gives Bush a bad name. Well, that and WMD fantasies, fat cat tax cuts, intelligent design fud, record deficit spending, Karl Rove
billy - torn between laughter and tears
Whoa there pardner!
Please be a little more careful with your research!
This rule only applies if you masturbate WITH the kitten.
Otherwise the kitten just gets a nasty case of indigestion and a mild head cold. It's careless fact checking like this that gives God a bad name. Well, that and polio, plagues, the pox, pedophile priests...
billy - so how bored DO you have to be to invent that whole gerbil thing?
There is a persistent widely believed rumor in the telco community that goes like this:
People make mistakes, especially when punching phone numbers into key pads. How many times has it happened to you? A finger slips and the number you enter is off by one digit. Often you don't even notice. Well who do think owns the phone numbers represented by all the one-digit-off combinations of a certain popular 1-800 discount collect call service? Hey it's a service, if you mess up a little you still get the benefit of the state of the art network, ensuring a great connection for your important call. Except instead of answering with the company's name the operator just asks for the number for your collect call. Same network, same call center, just different subsidiaries of the same giant multinational Telco conglomerate. Oh...and different rates. Who's gonna know? They don't make the call and you don't see the bill. Of course seeing the bill might not help much. Did you know there are successful businesses hired by major companies to do nothing but make sure their phone bills are correct? And they will guarantee your savings will cover their fees. I stopped doing business after 4 years with my cell provider when some of their top executives continued in their jobs after being indicted for billing fraud. My phone bill payments were being used to pay for the legal defense of someone charged with stealing from...ME!
Now I'm not saying the 1-800# story is true. I haven't looked into it at all. Do I have a hard time believing it's true? Based on only my actual, personal experiences with 'the phone company'...I have a lot harder time believing it's NOT.
billy - "don't worry operator, I'm not going to go 'sprintal' on you"
It actually goes much deeper. China is a huge market about to explode into a growth surge beyond imagination. Opportunities exist within a narrow window for both MS and Google to establish partnerships and business relationships with the companies that will become the movers and shakers in China for the next century. It will be a challenge to any company to adapt their business methods to the local environment, deal with a government much different from their experience, and earn trust and market share from the Chinese people. China also represents a huge potential source of IT talent just waiting for a direction. Google and MS will be competing for the Gorden Bells, Dan Bricklins, Gates, Jobs, Allens and Wozs of China. Influencing the directions taken in the creation of the Chinese IT industry is the equivalent of influencing the next major stage in the evolution of a connected World - and arguably the next stage in human evolution. It's an opportunity to create a new paradigm from the ground up. And there will be money. Unholy low Earth orbit high shitpiles of money.
Of course all this starts with the boots-on-the-ground presence. Google has chosen Kai-Fu Lee as their point man. He joins a growing group at the core of Google that includes some of the most influential and experienced people in the IT community. Coupled with Google's track record in product development and unique corporate culture, this collection of talent establishes Google as a driving force in the industry. It also validates Google's reputation for having its heart in the right place. Lee will bring Google and the Google vision to China. He will be one of the people shaping the relationship between China and the rest of the world. He could work anywhere. Microsoft wanted him so bad they sued to keep him. He chose Google. And he left MS, lawsuits and all. If he never speaks of his experience at MS again, he has already made a powerful statement. And if he can earn the trust of the Chinese people and government, Mr. Lee, and Google, will make many more.
billy - most noncompete contracts in the mainstream business community are about the relationships with a company's clients...to prevent you from moving to another company and taking your customers with you
"SUNS GOT AN X64 SERVER...WATCH OUT DELL"
Hell, I thought they were just gonna toss the thing over the side of the cockpit. With a B-52 they could drop mainframes.
billy - remember mainframes?