One problem I have with automatic updates and the reason I always switched to "notify only" is that I almost always use my laptop tethered to my mobile phone, often abroad. Nothing more fun than realising that silent download of a 250 MB windows update in the background has gone through your data limit minutes after you switched on the computer. Fun indeed.
I definitely second that - if you could only donate to one charity, MSF is a great choice. They make a real difference, they push no agenda, and they go to unsexy places. A charity worthy of your support.
Also worth mentioning that 'good for the individual' is not the same as 'good for the species,' and nature selects the latter
Are you sure about this? Even though there are people who argue this is the case, saying that nature selects species and not individuals is a bit misleading. Selection of individuals is still probably the most commonly used level ("survival of the fittest" refering to individual organism), but if anything, the shift is downwards - to genes, or even beyond - to information and context.
Please define "better". For myself, the greatest achievement of humankind is the advancement of knowledge about the world. Depending on what your priorities are, you could argue that a different era was "better" (e.g. less polution, less stress [doubtful], more "natural", or whatever floats your boat). But if you give up on what makes us what we are, you could argue that the best way to live your life is to be in a coma. Yes, today sucks but it is still better than any day before. YMMV.
You're missing the point. It's not that we should all get down to the lowest common denominator, it's about having useless visual bling (that is annoying and distracting even for a healthy person) that serves no useful purpose and CAN'T BE SWITCHED off making the phone unusable for people with a medical condition.
Again, the solution is not to force everyone to use a static UI, it's to give people the choice. Which is something Apple never does, I guess because then there would be people who switch it off and then complain that it does not work. I am an iPhone 5 user recently switched from Android and while the phone works just fine, I sorely miss the ability to actually customise anything.
It is very easy to make a test that detects 100% of patients who will eventually get a disease. Just make it always say "positive" and you're done. The hard thing is balancing the ability to detect a disease and avoid false negatives (sensitivity) with the ability to detect absence of disease and avoid false positives (specificity). Related to this are the positive predictive negative predictive values. Since Alzheimer's is very difficult to diagnose clinically and the only definitive proof is a biopsy/autopsy, I very much doubt a screening test would exist with a 100 % sensitivity and/or specificity.
The official site now has a video that includes some of the on-body camera shots, I am sure we will see many more of them as the footage is processed. I believe he had a couple cameras mounted on the suit, so don't worry.
Wait. These articles are able to glorify Putin in anyone's eyes? I thought by now every new piece about how he saved a puppy from a burning house serves only to further ridicule him and make fun of him. He tries so hard that it became a kind of comedy performance. With a lot of these articles, couple years ago, you could mistake them from something from Onion.com. He became a caricature of himself, an iron-fisted evil dictator who's trying so hard people laugh at him.
I am not so sure there is that much to be ticked-off by. Sagan's widow is quoted as saying that "...Sagan would have been thrilled to see his life’s work made available to the public." That does not sound like a greedy estate trying to get rich from selling stuff she inherited (not that there would be anything wrong with that). TFA is unclear on what the money went towards, I can imagine that transporting, sorting, filing and displaying the (large) collection is no easy feat and that the money is perhaps to be spent on that? Mrs. Druyan was not only Sagan's wife but also co-author, I don't see her as waiting for the highest bidder to auction off her inheritance.
While I agree with your point about touchscreens in cars, I don't see this as a solution, since these buttons are not pressed, they are touched, you can't just use tactile feedback to locate the right button and then press it, you'll "press" any button you touch. Still, I am curious where this technology will evolve and what uses it will find.
Several of my colleagues work/have worked for Doctors without Borders and through them I have met some of their non-medical personnel as well (esp. the logisticians). They strike me as one of the most deserving charities who provide relief without agenda (they are secular). I occasionally donate to other charities as well, but MSF are my No. 1 and I admire their work.
I was going to write basically the same comment. You'd think that if they truly believed they would not have a problem going to a lecture and hearing arguments against their belief. It's the furious opposition to education that betrays how little some people *really* believe. They just cover their ears and go "la la la" not to hear anything that would lead to even worse cognitive dissonance than they already have to face.
Exactly. If the possible answers really were ALWAYS, SOMETIMES, NEVER, I would expect all scientists to answer SOMETIMES, regardless of their own belief/lack thereof.
There was a study done to quantify what people understand under terms such as "sometimes", "usually", "frequently" and so on. It turns out "sometimes" ranges from 1 % to some 80 % (I don't have the exact numbers now, I saw the study in a workshop given by people from the National Board of Medical Examiners).
Without reading the original study though, I am inclined to think that it may be the journalists interpretation of what they think the researchers said.
I hope this whole tablet business will not delay what I really expect from Amazon - a hi-res color e-ink Kindle. Same format but a larger display. And please no touch screen, thank you, I don't want my greasy fingers on the display I read.
Tablets have a long way to go to replace dedicated e-book readers. Until they are easily readable in broad daylight and can last at least couple weeks, there will be a market for Kindle.
I am with you. I bought my Kindle a month ago, after very very long hesitation. And I love it. It's light, small, portable and the display is amazing. I love the fact that I can sit in the sun and read, just as I would with a book. That I can read in the evening in bed, without having to look at a back-lit display (some people may not mind, I do).
I love the fact that it does nothing else - I was impressed how immersive the reading is and I guess the fact that it does not have Skype, email, news, facebook, or any other of the million distractions is a huge plus. Of course, I know that on a tablet you can switch all these off and get the same undisturbed experience, but Kindle just makes it so much easier for you. When I read to fall asleep, without being tempted to check my mail one last time.
And don't underestimate the importance of the incredible battery life. I hope for a future where all devices will be like this - you just use them without having to constantly care about battery charge. With my android phone, I have to make sure that it's fully charged when I leave the house in the morning.
As for touch - I don't want to touch the screen of my e-reader (or my computer for that matter) with my dirty greasy fingers, thank you.
YMMV, but for me, the future Kindle should have a larger display, colour and possibly be even a little lighter. That I would buy immediatelly.
From TFA: It seems unlikely that most people — or even technology enthusiasts — will want to buy a product that involves sitting alone and wearing a little helmet.
How difficult is it to block the application the first time it spams your wall? Two, three clicks? Maybe it's the choice of friends who I let appear in my Facebook feed, but few mouse clicks every couple weeks/months when a new game appears does not seems to "ruin" anything for me. But then again, I don't have friends who start playing five new games every day and of my 200 contacts, only about 20 are not "hidden" competely from my wall, so my experience may be different.
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One problem I have with automatic updates and the reason I always switched to "notify only" is that I almost always use my laptop tethered to my mobile phone, often abroad. Nothing more fun than realising that silent download of a 250 MB windows update in the background has gone through your data limit minutes after you switched on the computer. Fun indeed.
How does it film *virtual* reality? Can it also be used to film reality? :-)
I definitely second that - if you could only donate to one charity, MSF is a great choice. They make a real difference, they push no agenda, and they go to unsexy places. A charity worthy of your support.
Also worth mentioning that 'good for the individual' is not the same as 'good for the species,' and nature selects the latter
Are you sure about this? Even though there are people who argue this is the case, saying that nature selects species and not individuals is a bit misleading. Selection of individuals is still probably the most commonly used level ("survival of the fittest" refering to individual organism), but if anything, the shift is downwards - to genes, or even beyond - to information and context.
Please define "better". For myself, the greatest achievement of humankind is the advancement of knowledge about the world. Depending on what your priorities are, you could argue that a different era was "better" (e.g. less polution, less stress [doubtful], more "natural", or whatever floats your boat). But if you give up on what makes us what we are, you could argue that the best way to live your life is to be in a coma. Yes, today sucks but it is still better than any day before. YMMV.
One drop is about 0.05 ml, i.e. 20 drops per mililitre. (When talking about water.)
You're missing the point. It's not that we should all get down to the lowest common denominator, it's about having useless visual bling (that is annoying and distracting even for a healthy person) that serves no useful purpose and CAN'T BE SWITCHED off making the phone unusable for people with a medical condition.
Again, the solution is not to force everyone to use a static UI, it's to give people the choice. Which is something Apple never does, I guess because then there would be people who switch it off and then complain that it does not work. I am an iPhone 5 user recently switched from Android and while the phone works just fine, I sorely miss the ability to actually customise anything.
I'm not a Star Trek fan but this always reminds me of A. C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama. It is exciting to live in the future.
It is very easy to make a test that detects 100% of patients who will eventually get a disease. Just make it always say "positive" and you're done. The hard thing is balancing the ability to detect a disease and avoid false negatives (sensitivity) with the ability to detect absence of disease and avoid false positives (specificity). Related to this are the positive predictive negative predictive values. Since Alzheimer's is very difficult to diagnose clinically and the only definitive proof is a biopsy/autopsy, I very much doubt a screening test would exist with a 100 % sensitivity and/or specificity.
Ever watched a Shuttle returning?
Space X is posting updates here: http://www.spacex.com/webcast/ , unfortunately there is no live video feed, only status updates.
Wonder no more: they'll get beaten up just the same. See here: http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/16/augmented-reality-explorer-steve-mann-assaulted-at-parisian-mcdonalds/
The official site now has a video that includes some of the on-body camera shots, I am sure we will see many more of them as the footage is processed. I believe he had a couple cameras mounted on the suit, so don't worry.
Wait. These articles are able to glorify Putin in anyone's eyes? I thought by now every new piece about how he saved a puppy from a burning house serves only to further ridicule him and make fun of him. He tries so hard that it became a kind of comedy performance. With a lot of these articles, couple years ago, you could mistake them from something from Onion.com. He became a caricature of himself, an iron-fisted evil dictator who's trying so hard people laugh at him.
I am not so sure there is that much to be ticked-off by. Sagan's widow is quoted as saying that "...Sagan would have been thrilled to see his life’s work made available to the public." That does not sound like a greedy estate trying to get rich from selling stuff she inherited (not that there would be anything wrong with that). TFA is unclear on what the money went towards, I can imagine that transporting, sorting, filing and displaying the (large) collection is no easy feat and that the money is perhaps to be spent on that? Mrs. Druyan was not only Sagan's wife but also co-author, I don't see her as waiting for the highest bidder to auction off her inheritance.
"Utterly dominate" as in ~8 % of the mobile phone market? Or ~25 % of the smartphone market? Apple is big, but utter domination looks different, IMO.
While I agree with your point about touchscreens in cars, I don't see this as a solution, since these buttons are not pressed, they are touched, you can't just use tactile feedback to locate the right button and then press it, you'll "press" any button you touch. Still, I am curious where this technology will evolve and what uses it will find.
Didn't Intel do something like this in 1994? :)
Several of my colleagues work/have worked for Doctors without Borders and through them I have met some of their non-medical personnel as well (esp. the logisticians). They strike me as one of the most deserving charities who provide relief without agenda (they are secular). I occasionally donate to other charities as well, but MSF are my No. 1 and I admire their work.
I was going to write basically the same comment. You'd think that if they truly believed they would not have a problem going to a lecture and hearing arguments against their belief. It's the furious opposition to education that betrays how little some people *really* believe. They just cover their ears and go "la la la" not to hear anything that would lead to even worse cognitive dissonance than they already have to face.
Exactly. If the possible answers really were ALWAYS, SOMETIMES, NEVER, I would expect all scientists to answer SOMETIMES, regardless of their own belief/lack thereof.
There was a study done to quantify what people understand under terms such as "sometimes", "usually", "frequently" and so on. It turns out "sometimes" ranges from 1 % to some 80 % (I don't have the exact numbers now, I saw the study in a workshop given by people from the National Board of Medical Examiners).
Without reading the original study though, I am inclined to think that it may be the journalists interpretation of what they think the researchers said.
I hope this whole tablet business will not delay what I really expect from Amazon - a hi-res color e-ink Kindle. Same format but a larger display. And please no touch screen, thank you, I don't want my greasy fingers on the display I read.
Tablets have a long way to go to replace dedicated e-book readers. Until they are easily readable in broad daylight and can last at least couple weeks, there will be a market for Kindle.
I am with you. I bought my Kindle a month ago, after very very long hesitation. And I love it. It's light, small, portable and the display is amazing. I love the fact that I can sit in the sun and read, just as I would with a book. That I can read in the evening in bed, without having to look at a back-lit display (some people may not mind, I do).
I love the fact that it does nothing else - I was impressed how immersive the reading is and I guess the fact that it does not have Skype, email, news, facebook, or any other of the million distractions is a huge plus. Of course, I know that on a tablet you can switch all these off and get the same undisturbed experience, but Kindle just makes it so much easier for you. When I read to fall asleep, without being tempted to check my mail one last time.
And don't underestimate the importance of the incredible battery life. I hope for a future where all devices will be like this - you just use them without having to constantly care about battery charge. With my android phone, I have to make sure that it's fully charged when I leave the house in the morning.
As for touch - I don't want to touch the screen of my e-reader (or my computer for that matter) with my dirty greasy fingers, thank you.
YMMV, but for me, the future Kindle should have a larger display, colour and possibly be even a little lighter. That I would buy immediatelly.
From TFA: It seems unlikely that most people — or even technology enthusiasts — will want to buy a product that involves sitting alone and wearing a little helmet.
Really? What about gaming? What about porn?
How difficult is it to block the application the first time it spams your wall? Two, three clicks? Maybe it's the choice of friends who I let appear in my Facebook feed, but few mouse clicks every couple weeks/months when a new game appears does not seems to "ruin" anything for me. But then again, I don't have friends who start playing five new games every day and of my 200 contacts, only about 20 are not "hidden" competely from my wall, so my experience may be different.