If we're worried that designing missile control software makes us responsible for the deaths that occur when the missile goes off...what are the ethical ramifications of paying the taxes that pay the salary of the missile control software designer?
When a nation goes to war, it seems to me that there's no such thing as an innocent civilian over the age of 18 (except, perhaps if someone's on the dole and not contributing even indirectly to the war effort).
The winners of Geek Triathalons never bother with round 1 or 2. They compete only in round 3. In round 3, the competitors hack into the result tracking database and alter the results in their favor.
There's some early stage results that say human brains do not develop their ability to evaluate risk until around age 22.
There's my experience that says two 14 year olds having sex is not a crime, but a 14 year old with a 30 year old is definitely not right for the 14 year old. The 14 year old does not, generally, have equal mental/emotional maturity and cannot stand up to the 30 year old intellecutally as an equal. However, they can with another 14 year old. So there's not a built-in power imbalance.
30-year olds that want to be with 14-year olds instead of others their own age, are also, as a population, not in their right minds. They're not up to a relationship with a person on an equal power-basis. As such, those 30-year-olds ought to restrict all their social interaction to IRC.
As for your granny and her age of consent, well...all I can say is we humans generally once thought the earth was flat, surgeons didn't need to wash their hands and that the sun rotated around the earth. We were wrong in all cases.
Who needs perpetual motion machines. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney just acquired the Subtle Knife and are, at this moment, preparing to invade thousands of alternate-Earths and pump their crude oil to our USA.
Empire on PLATO was a real-time 2d 30-player Star Trek game. 4 teams, up to 15 on a team, 30 total players. Had an all-time Hall of Fame, Tournaments, and a set of Monthly records. Also kept track of team victories (conquering all the planets).
Silas Warner is credited as one of the co-creators of Empire. He's dead according to platopeople.com. I think some of the others involved included John Daleske and Chuck Miller.
I played (OK, was seriously addicted to) Empire from 1975 to 1981.
First of all, Mr. Baldass_Newbie (I call you Mr. because the thought you might be female is just too much to contemplate in public), my name is not Apt, it's Organic Brain Damage.
Now that we've got that straight, I have a vague understanding Windows releases. I've been programming Windows applications since 1986.
And, as for this: "Widely-used software is usually paradigm shifting" all I can say is, no, it's not usually paradigm shifting, at least not in the sense that widely used software pioneered a paradigm shift (Xerox PARC's GUI vs. Mac and Windows). Perhaps widely used derivative versions can be considered responsible for spreading a paradigm shift to a large population of users, but that's not what you state, even if it's what you mean. Widely used software is usually simply widely used.
And there's a ton of widely used software that's simply widely used and shifts nobodies paradigms. Internet Explorer, for instance, one of the most widely used applications on the planet. Firefox would be another instance. And if you look at gaming, at least 80% of the best selling titles are things like Halo 3 or Madden 2008 and it'd be silly to call those paradigm shifters.
I don't know why you feel a need to buy DVD software, picture management software, music tools or backup software. I run Windows XP and manage to burn DVD's, play DIVXs, manage pictures and music collections and have automated incremental nightly backups all without buying any software. Granted only some of that comes out of the box. In that sense, Mac is definitely a more complete solution. Prettier too.
C'mon. Starting over from scratch on something like Vista seems a bit drastic. How about some fixes instead? Most widely-used software doesn't come into being whole-cloth in v1.0. Most of it is grown on top of inferior prior versions. Eventually it turns into Windows ME and it's time to start over. But by then the start over (NT) had been through a number of releases.
I took one of the pill cam's about a year ago. It didn't work on me. My GI tract is too fast for the camera to record enough images to make a decent diagnosis. At least that's what the physician reading the images said.
I don't think driving on a toll road is one of them. After all, poor people are by definition, not as valuable as wealthy people so why should anyone care about their commute times?
You're going to have to read the code. Most programmers love to write code and hate to read code. If you cannot read code, you cannot do maintenance programming.
One technique I've found helpful when confronted with something to big, ugly and important to rewrite.... Find someone, anyone, who will sit in a room with a PC and projector and you explain what the code does to them, in detail.
If you need to diagram, use a whiteboard, Rose is useless. You'll wind up with a huge pile of ineffable UML if you try to diagram it in detail with Rose.
Who cares if Sun buys it. Now they have a crappy database to go with their crappy language, substandard O/S, useless office suite and overpriced hardware. It's almost a complete set....of junk.
You'd have to be living under a rock not to realize that Facebook (and MySpace) are being used by schools and employers and angry colleagues to deny employment or discipline students. Why would anyone keep a Facbook page up and running today? So you can show your "friends" how much dope you smoked last weekend? That's just stupid.
Maybe I'm too old to understand, but back in the '70s when when a doper bragged about lost weekends the bragging wasn't recorded.
Ask a few meainingless questions to let the person get warmed up. Then ask the following:
1. Do you read recreationally? If so, what? (I've worked with hundreds of programmers and never met a good one who didn't read for fun.)
2. Do you enjoy programming? Why? (I've never met a good programmer who did not like programming.)
3. Here, here's a computer, please write a function to convert an arbitrary string of characters into an integer. (There's nothing magical about integer conversion, you could ask for many similar simple programs. You'll be amazed how many people make it to the interview and cannot write a simple program in a short period of time when left alone in a room with a development environment and no internet access.)
These 2 questions an 1 short 15-minute task will filter out the good programmers.
I have contempt for interviewers who like to use cute little Microsoft-style puzzles to try to figure out how you "think." They are fools who should leave figuring out how people think to Psychologists, Neurologists and Philosophers and stick with trying to figure out if you can or cannot write good programs, work well with others, etc...
Before I get into a tizzy over which is better, OLPC or Intel, has anyone done any actual science to determine and quantify the benefits of access to laptops and the internet for 3rd world children?
There's science to back the notion that mosquito nets improve the lives of children in the tropics (measurably lower rate of Malaria). But on computers, we're just taking it on faith.
And it works for them. The store at the Mall of America in Bloomington is quite possibly the busiest square footage in the entire mall...and that includes Hooters. I think they do a remarkable job with the stores. Almost every other big company has horrible stores. Dell has stupid kiosks in malls. Can you imagine how bad a Microsoft store would be?
Disclosure: I do not own any Apple products. I run on Dell hardware.
Sure, from the average citizen's perspective, $10.66 isn't money worth much thought. But, from the average Phisher's perspective, $3.2 billion is a hefty sum. How many Phisher's do you think share the $3.2 billion? Maybe I need to consider a career change...
If I take the time to clean it properly, and decorate it with attractive sparkly flower stickers? Is that sacrificing for the benefit of my WII?
Does my WII have to be able to reproduce itself in order to be said to benefit? Could someone love a virus or bacteria? How about a puppy? There's some kind of squishy line we which tend to imagine is concrete and solid.
P.S. I subscribe to 14 major religions and 3 minor ones. But I'm probably not going to renew 2 or 3 of the subscriptions in 2008 due to inflation in fuel and food prices. I have no private life, I have children and a wife. And my WII is imaginary.
Here's a criteria I'd use for a healthy love relationship that current machines cannot meet: It has to be capable of returning love. Do not love or hate anything that cannot love or hate you in return. Simple rule. Easy to forget.
Love = sacrifice? Love = emotional exposure? Love = risk of loss?
We can definitely satisfy those three criteria with a machine.
Sacrifice: I had to wait in line to get my Nintendo WII.
Emotional exposure: I tell my Nintendo WII that I love it and...it makes fun of me. Or not.
Risk of loss: You can call it risk, but losing a loving relationship is 100% certain. All marriages end. 2/3rds in divorce, 1/3rd in death. And my Nintendo WII is going to breakdown and die.
No, those three criteria don't work to disqualify robots from love relationships.
>> Why not propose alternatives than simply run away?
The "I see you're no Einstein" post was subtle. Einstein is viewed as being inarguably smart. Einstein was a Jew who left Germany. If he'd stayed behind, he probably would have perished in the death camps. Sometimes, running away is the smart thing to do. The poster made the point in a clever and succint manner.
The post was also hyperbolic as having your computer seized (despite how many of this boards readers feel) is not in the same league as being killed.
We all fixate on the computer passing, but think of the billions of humans who could not pass a Turing test. Are they really human or just a collection of retrovirus' walking about pretending to be humans?
Slashdot Mirror
If we're worried that designing missile control software makes us responsible for the deaths that occur when the missile goes off...what are the ethical ramifications of paying the taxes that pay the salary of the missile control software designer?
When a nation goes to war, it seems to me that there's no such thing as an innocent civilian over the age of 18 (except, perhaps if someone's on the dole and not contributing even indirectly to the war effort).
The winners of Geek Triathalons never bother with round 1 or 2. They compete only in round 3. In round 3, the competitors hack into the result tracking database and alter the results in their favor.
I've got two kids, ages 11 and 9.
There's some early stage results that say human brains do not develop their ability to evaluate risk until around age 22.
There's my experience that says two 14 year olds having sex is not a crime, but a 14 year old with a 30 year old is definitely not right for the 14 year old. The 14 year old does not, generally, have equal mental/emotional maturity and cannot stand up to the 30 year old intellecutally as an equal. However, they can with another 14 year old. So there's not a built-in power imbalance.
30-year olds that want to be with 14-year olds instead of others their own age, are also, as a population, not in their right minds. They're not up to a relationship with a person on an equal power-basis. As such, those 30-year-olds ought to restrict all their social interaction to IRC.
As for your granny and her age of consent, well...all I can say is we humans generally once thought the earth was flat, surgeons didn't need to wash their hands and that the sun rotated around the earth. We were wrong in all cases.
Who needs perpetual motion machines. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney just acquired the Subtle Knife and are, at this moment, preparing to invade thousands of alternate-Earths and pump their crude oil to our USA.
Empire on PLATO was a real-time 2d 30-player Star Trek game. 4 teams, up to 15 on a team, 30 total players. Had an all-time Hall of Fame, Tournaments, and a set of Monthly records. Also kept track of team victories (conquering all the planets).
Silas Warner is credited as one of the co-creators of Empire. He's dead according to platopeople.com. I think some of the others involved included John Daleske and Chuck Miller.
I played (OK, was seriously addicted to) Empire from 1975 to 1981.
First of all, Mr. Baldass_Newbie (I call you Mr. because the thought you might be female is just too much to contemplate in public), my name is not Apt, it's Organic Brain Damage.
Now that we've got that straight, I have a vague understanding Windows releases. I've been programming Windows applications since 1986.
And, as for this: "Widely-used software is usually paradigm shifting" all I can say is, no, it's not usually paradigm shifting, at least not in the sense that widely used software pioneered a paradigm shift (Xerox PARC's GUI vs. Mac and Windows). Perhaps widely used derivative versions can be considered responsible for spreading a paradigm shift to a large population of users, but that's not what you state, even if it's what you mean. Widely used software is usually simply widely used.
And there's a ton of widely used software that's simply widely used and shifts nobodies paradigms. Internet Explorer, for instance, one of the most widely used applications on the planet. Firefox would be another instance. And if you look at gaming, at least 80% of the best selling titles are things like Halo 3 or Madden 2008 and it'd be silly to call those paradigm shifters.
I don't know why you feel a need to buy DVD software, picture management software, music tools or backup software. I run Windows XP and manage to burn DVD's, play DIVXs, manage pictures and music collections and have automated incremental nightly backups all without buying any software. Granted only some of that comes out of the box. In that sense, Mac is definitely a more complete solution. Prettier too.
C'mon. Starting over from scratch on something like Vista seems a bit drastic. How about some fixes instead? Most widely-used software doesn't come into being whole-cloth in v1.0. Most of it is grown on top of inferior prior versions. Eventually it turns into Windows ME and it's time to start over. But by then the start over (NT) had been through a number of releases.
I took one of the pill cam's about a year ago. It didn't work on me. My GI tract is too fast for the camera to record enough images to make a decent diagnosis. At least that's what the physician reading the images said.
I don't think driving on a toll road is one of them. After all, poor people are by definition, not as valuable as wealthy people so why should anyone care about their commute times?
You're going to have to read the code. Most programmers love to write code and hate to read code. If you cannot read code, you cannot do maintenance programming.
One technique I've found helpful when confronted with something to big, ugly and important to rewrite....
Find someone, anyone, who will sit in a room with a PC and projector and you explain what the code does to them, in detail.
If you need to diagram, use a whiteboard, Rose is useless. You'll wind up with a huge pile of ineffable UML if you try to diagram it in detail with Rose.
Who cares if Sun buys it. Now they have a crappy database to go with their crappy language, substandard O/S, useless office suite and overpriced hardware. It's almost a complete set....of junk.
You'd have to be living under a rock not to realize that Facebook (and MySpace) are being used by schools and employers and angry colleagues to deny employment or discipline students. Why would anyone keep a Facbook page up and running today? So you can show your "friends" how much dope you smoked last weekend? That's just stupid.
Maybe I'm too old to understand, but back in the '70s when when a doper bragged about lost weekends the bragging wasn't recorded.
Friends don't let friends post on Facebook.
That strikes me as roughly analogous to going to the Altria site to read about the initial experiences of teen smokers.
Ask a few meainingless questions to let the person get warmed up. Then ask the following: 1. Do you read recreationally? If so, what? (I've worked with hundreds of programmers and never met a good one who didn't read for fun.) 2. Do you enjoy programming? Why? (I've never met a good programmer who did not like programming.) 3. Here, here's a computer, please write a function to convert an arbitrary string of characters into an integer. (There's nothing magical about integer conversion, you could ask for many similar simple programs. You'll be amazed how many people make it to the interview and cannot write a simple program in a short period of time when left alone in a room with a development environment and no internet access.) These 2 questions an 1 short 15-minute task will filter out the good programmers. I have contempt for interviewers who like to use cute little Microsoft-style puzzles to try to figure out how you "think." They are fools who should leave figuring out how people think to Psychologists, Neurologists and Philosophers and stick with trying to figure out if you can or cannot write good programs, work well with others, etc...
Before I get into a tizzy over which is better, OLPC or Intel, has anyone done any actual science to determine and quantify the benefits of access to laptops and the internet for 3rd world children? There's science to back the notion that mosquito nets improve the lives of children in the tropics (measurably lower rate of Malaria). But on computers, we're just taking it on faith.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_ourselves_to_death/ tells us more than ./ about the effect of Television on our culture.
And it works for them. The store at the Mall of America in Bloomington is quite possibly the busiest square footage in the entire mall...and that includes Hooters. I think they do a remarkable job with the stores. Almost every other big company has horrible stores. Dell has stupid kiosks in malls. Can you imagine how bad a Microsoft store would be? Disclosure: I do not own any Apple products. I run on Dell hardware.
Sure, from the average citizen's perspective, $10.66 isn't money worth much thought. But, from the average Phisher's perspective, $3.2 billion is a hefty sum. How many Phisher's do you think share the $3.2 billion? Maybe I need to consider a career change...
But what have you done for me lately?
If I take the time to clean it properly, and decorate it with attractive sparkly flower stickers? Is that sacrificing for the benefit of my WII?
Does my WII have to be able to reproduce itself in order to be said to benefit? Could someone love a virus or bacteria? How about a puppy? There's some kind of squishy line we which tend to imagine is concrete and solid.
P.S. I subscribe to 14 major religions and 3 minor ones. But I'm probably not going to renew 2 or 3 of the subscriptions in 2008 due to inflation in fuel and food prices. I have no private life, I have children and a wife. And my WII is imaginary.
Here's a criteria I'd use for a healthy love relationship that current machines cannot meet: It has to be capable of returning love. Do not love or hate anything that cannot love or hate you in return. Simple rule. Easy to forget.
...it makes fun of me. Or not.
Love = sacrifice? Love = emotional exposure? Love = risk of loss?
We can definitely satisfy those three criteria with a machine.
Sacrifice: I had to wait in line to get my Nintendo WII.
Emotional exposure: I tell my Nintendo WII that I love it and
Risk of loss: You can call it risk, but losing a loving relationship is 100% certain. All marriages end. 2/3rds in divorce, 1/3rd in death. And my Nintendo WII is going to breakdown and die.
No, those three criteria don't work to disqualify robots from love relationships.
>> Why not propose alternatives than simply run away?
The "I see you're no Einstein" post was subtle. Einstein is viewed as being inarguably smart. Einstein was a Jew who left Germany. If he'd stayed behind, he probably would have perished in the death camps. Sometimes, running away is the smart thing to do. The poster made the point in a clever and succint manner.
The post was also hyperbolic as having your computer seized (despite how many of this boards readers feel) is not in the same league as being killed.
Give him a sheep. http://store.nexternal.com/shared/StoreFront/default.asp?CS=oxfam&StoreType=BtoC&Count1=660671412&Count2=577811837/
We all fixate on the computer passing, but think of the billions of humans who could not pass a Turing test. Are they really human or just a collection of retrovirus' walking about pretending to be humans?
Once we figure out if a virus is a live, we can start to think about prions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion