I know this is off-topic, but it is still relevant: is there any way to acquire the ID number for the current version of a Wikimedia article? I've thought about this in the past, and with the root article I thought I might pose it to the/. community. The parent's post with a version URL pushed me over the edge. I have looked high and low for that little tidbit of information, and while the Wikipedia URLs entry provides a lot of information about how to productively construct Wikipedia URLs, I can't figure out how to permalink to the current version of the article I'm viewing. Any tips?
Could you please provide more information about the risks involved with using headphones? In particular, I'd like to know how loud is too loud, and how to know where the safety point is.
I definitely like to listen to loud music by means of headphones (generally because those around me won't let me listen to loud music through speakers), and I'd like to know how to avoid hearing loss.
I want to thank Baldrson for posting such a heavily linked article - it's always interesting what gems get turned up when such happens.
For instance, I randomly decided to check out the Islam Way webpage, and I found a really thoughtful essay concerning responsibility for last week's tragedy, which attempts to take an unbiased look at world grief and anger, and how we ought to respond.
Oh, and it's written by a CS student at UMich. Always intriguing. Mad respef to Tariq for this one.
michael commented that this article was "(a) little different than the usual Slashdot fare, but good reading nonetheless." I agree with him that it was an interesting read - the fate of modern media is an interesting topic and definitely open to discussion. I just wanted to comment that I think that articles like this should definitely be included on/. I know that at least I want to see salient news from across the board, from our *nix updates to important trends in the world today.
"**note: for a computer to have "real human like recognition" it must also have the ability to be "mistaken".:-)"
Yep, that's very true. And that's where computers differ from humans, and, in fact, from all living things. For a living thing, by definition, makes mistakes for the sole purpose of learning from those mistakes and forming new ways of dealing with things (evolution and learning). Computers, on the other hand, have been created so that they perform exactly as specified. How can we make a computer make mistakes? I know there have been efforts at evolutionary computation, but, quite simply, when computers achieve evolutionary status, they can no longer serve as our tools as they do right now. Or at least, so it seems, because it is human nature to want our machines to work precisely. Do we want to give our computers room for error?
Does anyone remember the PADDs from Star Trek? The whole issue of mobile, manipulatable information makes me think of those. They were about paper-sized, and they were portable. True enough, they were fictional, but they seem very similar to today's PDAs.
I also remember Geordi and Wesley (etc) carrying them around and touching them to access and manipulate information. It would be no sweat to add a stylus and perhaps a 3.5" floppy drive. I just think that a paper-sized and highly tactile information display would be better than the smaller PDAs that we have right now. Also, this unit should enable a user to take notes at any time, perhaps through a background layering protocol that associates the document and the notes.
It is my opinion that manufacturers should take the advice of the Slashdot masses and produce an electronic equivalent to paper.
Slashdot Mirror
I know this is off-topic, but it is still relevant: is there any way to acquire the ID number for the current version of a Wikimedia article? I've thought about this in the past, and with the root article I thought I might pose it to the /. community. The parent's post with a version URL pushed me over the edge. I have looked high and low for that little tidbit of information, and while the Wikipedia URLs entry provides a lot of information about how to productively construct Wikipedia URLs, I can't figure out how to permalink to the current version of the article I'm viewing. Any tips?
Could you please provide more information about the risks involved with using headphones? In particular, I'd like to know how loud is too loud, and how to know where the safety point is.
I definitely like to listen to loud music by means of headphones (generally because those around me won't let me listen to loud music through speakers), and I'd like to know how to avoid hearing loss.
I want to thank Baldrson for posting such a heavily linked article - it's always interesting what gems get turned up when such happens.
For instance, I randomly decided to check out the Islam Way webpage, and I found a really thoughtful essay concerning responsibility for last week's tragedy, which attempts to take an unbiased look at world grief and anger, and how we ought to respond.
Oh, and it's written by a CS student at UMich. Always intriguing. Mad respef to Tariq for this one.
May God have mercy on us all.
michael commented that this article was "(a) little different than the usual Slashdot fare, but good reading nonetheless." I agree with him that it was an interesting read - the fate of modern media is an interesting topic and definitely open to discussion. I just wanted to comment that I think that articles like this should definitely be included on /. I know that at least I want to see salient news from across the board, from our *nix updates to important trends in the world today.
"**note: for a computer to have "real human like recognition" it must also have the ability to be "mistaken". :-)"
Yep, that's very true. And that's where computers differ from humans, and, in fact, from all living things. For a living thing, by definition, makes mistakes for the sole purpose of learning from those mistakes and forming new ways of dealing with things (evolution and learning). Computers, on the other hand, have been created so that they perform exactly as specified. How can we make a computer make mistakes? I know there have been efforts at evolutionary computation, but, quite simply, when computers achieve evolutionary status, they can no longer serve as our tools as they do right now. Or at least, so it seems, because it is human nature to want our machines to work precisely. Do we want to give our computers room for error?
Where can you find sj.exe and info about it?
-JLC
"Innovative technology and bouncing probes. Coolness epitomised."
**laughs a lot**
Can I quote you on that? I really like it...
-JLC
Does anyone remember the PADDs from Star Trek? The whole issue of mobile, manipulatable information makes me think of those. They were about paper-sized, and they were portable. True enough, they were fictional, but they seem very similar to today's PDAs.
I also remember Geordi and Wesley (etc) carrying them around and touching them to access and manipulate information. It would be no sweat to add a stylus and perhaps a 3.5" floppy drive. I just think that a paper-sized and highly tactile information display would be better than the smaller PDAs that we have right now. Also, this unit should enable a user to take notes at any time, perhaps through a background layering protocol that associates the document and the notes.
It is my opinion that manufacturers should take the advice of the Slashdot masses and produce an electronic equivalent to paper.