Has no one yet cottoned on to why China's leadership isn't backing Russia against the USA, when they almost always back nasty little tin pot dictators elsewhere against the US?
Look up Tannu Uriankhai. Then look up Mongolia. China lost 15% of their territory when Russia interfered in Mongolia. The average Chinese doesn't know their own history, but the government sure do. Now add in restive areas like Tibet. Then add in Taiwan.
China has many reasons not to support Russia's fake "referendum". 97% it such poor propaganda you have to wonder if Russia has learned nothing about successful propaganda since their last empire collapsed.
The mind is the sum of its physical structure. Is is not mystical or magic.
You're suggesting human society is going to continue along just as it is now - a struggle over limited resources, short term thinking, and not much of a change in energy and manufacturing.
I think it is possible that as technology advances and energy production and manufacturing become more sophisticated we'll reach the point where we have a practical excess of both. At that point the "high cost of achieving this state" won't be an issue.
Longer term, assuming humanity doesn't destroy itself we'll probably become space faring, initially within the solar system. Once we have self contained manufacturing off-planet everything will change. Practically unlimited space, resources, and energy.
I'd love to be around when that happens...
Immortality in our lifetime requires a few basic scientific advances:
1. Preservation.
The most obvious means to do that is freezing.
2. Revival.
If we can freeze a mind and bring it back with its memories intact then we can wait for technology to repair the damage that necessitated freezing the body in the first place - assuming the preserved mind does not decay further over time. Factors that are probably significant here are whether freezing the body below a certain temperature actually makes revival more difficult. If not, then the colder the better, since the longer the body can be frozen the higher the probability the revived body can be repaired.
One more thing...
Uploading our minds into computers is not "immortality". A program would be a copy, not the original.
Longer term, gradually replacing parts of a living mind with electronic components such that the mind felt a sense of continuous existence would be one way to transition from organic to machine.
Immortality is continuation of our mind and personality.
I hope to be frozen when I die. A slim chance is better than no chance at all.
Cheers,
Mark
I use it myself with a social group of 40 or so.
I occasionally worry if they'll decide to add it to their growing list of abandoned offerings, which is probably a consideration for you too.
More annoyingly, like most Google offerings, the interface is pretty crap so I can't imagine it would be enjoyable managing a list your size;-)
Much as I prefer iOS, if I ever did decide to buy an Andriod device it would be either the usual cheap POS, or... a Transformer. The hardware looks quite decent with the keyboard and trackpad.
You mean you never unthinkingly type shit when thumping keys on slashdot?
Now that you've had a good whine, how about you piss off and find a website for perfectionists.
I think you'll find Apple has been developing operating systems a bit longer than Android has been in use out there, and might just have touched on voice recognition a time or two.
"Statements from Jobs (RIP) about wanting to destroy Android even if it cost Apple all their wealth- shows the mentality within that company to stifle innovation of others."
Ummm, no, it's the sign of someone EXTREMELY pissed off by the belief he had been betrayed by a two faced Google CEO Schmidt sneakily ripping off all of Apple's hard work and stabbing them in the back when he was a member of the Apple board of directors. I'm sure SJ thought "do no evil" is a load of shit marketing slogan as a consequence.
It probably also bought home painful memories of when Microsoft stole from them, the difference being that this was being done by someone they had appointed to the Apple board and trusted. I would be spewing tacks as well.
Not that I'm saying Jobs was a saint - he did some pretty shit things when he was a youngster - but put in that context it's pretty easy to see why he was ballistic.
I've noticed that perfectly reasonable comments like the above are deliberately and methodically voted down here on Slashdot. Is this a sign of some bizarre biased Apple hate-fest or are the "moderators" being paid to screw with Slashdot?
Funny, I use a 3GS and haven't noticed it being slow or frustrating running iOS5. I'm quite liking decent drop and drag in the calendar and the addition of iMessage (the former is even better on my iPad first gen).
My only annoyance is Stanza (the worlds best eBook reader by far) is broken and Amazon haven't released an update.
Amazon are usually useless at grabbing opportunities - ie., millions use Stanza, but Amazon hasn't been bright enough to release an update with a nice obvious way to buy stuff from their site. Instead they fail to update it and everyone moves to one of the dozens of free alternative readers whilst also feeling pissed off at Amazon.
Those guys really are morons.
Apple accepts this app and they're attacked for being anti-gay, supporting homophobia, etc... If Apple rejects this app, they'll be attacked for infringing on free speech, supporting a particular political agenda, etc... Either way, you're pissing customers off.
But all I feel is schadenfreude. They got themselves into this mess by imposing editorial control over the iPhone in the first place. They made their bed, now they get to lie in it.
Meh. What mess? This is called free advertising...
What are you going to do? Get a bald headed guy with a British accent to play him? I got news for you
pal, baldness will be cured in the 23rd century!
Cured? Sorry hairy one, but in the future your children (should you procreate through some devious means) will all be bald in order to ensure their massive genetically engineered brains can dissipate the extra heat. Politicians will still do so by keeping their mouths open - just like dogs.
Us "baldies" are just preparing in advance.
You must be thinking of a generation ago. If you more familiar with Apple's current generation of laptops (as I am, since I own a Mac Book Pro), you'd know they have decent keys that don't mark the screen (which was a common problem with laptops of the era), and the power cable is a marvelous design that I'd like to see other manufacturers using - it's a magnetic connector that if you trip over or accidentally pull on, just disconnects - no damage to the laptop or cord. You have to actually see and use it to appreciate what a difference it makes.
BTW, I'm not a "Mac-head". I'm one of those platform-agnostic people that is comfortable in pretty much any environment, and appreciates good design.
"I thought the sheep in New Zealand were the pirates. Oh, no, that's the Kea. Notorious theives, Kea - they'll steal anything they can reach. I've heard that one group of Kea have now set up a car dealership, using bits they've stolen off tourist's vehicles. Wouldn't surprise me at all if they've learned how to surf the Internet and pirate software."
For those that don't know, the Kea is a giant mountain parrot native to New Zealand, that has a habit of damaging cars - eg., pulling off mirrors, snaping aerial, let down the tyres, shred seats and so on.
From Bill Clinton's autobiography:
"The Republican leaders had received a memorandum from William Kristol, former
chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle, urging them to kill health-care reform.
Kristol said the Republicans couldn't afford to allow anything to pass; a success on health
care would present a "serious political threat to the Republican Party," while its demise
would be a "monumental setback for the President." At the end of May, at a Memorial
Day retreat, the Republican congressional leaders decided to adopt Kristol's position. I
wasn't surprised that Gingrich would follow Kristol's hard line; his goal was to win the
House and push the country to the right. Dole, on the other hand, was genuinely
interested in health care and knew we needed to reform the system. But he was running
for President. All he had to do was to hold forty-one of his fellow Republicans for a
filibuster and we were sunk."
Except that barely half of the population in China actually speaks
Mandarin, and even then, most of those that speak it speak so so as a
second language. The written language is much more pervasive.
http://english.people.com.cn/200501/03/eng20050103 _169500.html
The relevant sections:
"Mandarin's status as China's standard language has been further enhanced as nearly 53 percent of the 1.3 billion Chinese in the country can communicate with others via Mandarin, said a national survey released here Sunday."
And most still speak in their local dialect instead:
"The survey also shows 86 percent of the population can speak regional Chinese dialects, and nearly 5 percent use the languages of China's 55 ethnic minority groups to communicate."
Even then, the numbers might be higher than reality: I suspect it is easier to interview people in the cities than those in the countryside:)
The funniest thing would be in a court case having the defending lawyer pop up and ask Sony, "so... you've been selling MP3 players, walkmans, and other devices, encouraging users to buy them and rip songs onto them, but now you're saying it is wrong if one of your clients repeats your message?":)
Slashdot Mirror
Has no one yet cottoned on to why China's leadership isn't backing Russia against the USA, when they almost always back nasty little tin pot dictators elsewhere against the US? Look up Tannu Uriankhai. Then look up Mongolia. China lost 15% of their territory when Russia interfered in Mongolia. The average Chinese doesn't know their own history, but the government sure do. Now add in restive areas like Tibet. Then add in Taiwan. China has many reasons not to support Russia's fake "referendum". 97% it such poor propaganda you have to wonder if Russia has learned nothing about successful propaganda since their last empire collapsed.
The mind is the sum of its physical structure. Is is not mystical or magic. You're suggesting human society is going to continue along just as it is now - a struggle over limited resources, short term thinking, and not much of a change in energy and manufacturing. I think it is possible that as technology advances and energy production and manufacturing become more sophisticated we'll reach the point where we have a practical excess of both. At that point the "high cost of achieving this state" won't be an issue. Longer term, assuming humanity doesn't destroy itself we'll probably become space faring, initially within the solar system. Once we have self contained manufacturing off-planet everything will change. Practically unlimited space, resources, and energy. I'd love to be around when that happens...
Immortality in our lifetime requires a few basic scientific advances: 1. Preservation. The most obvious means to do that is freezing. 2. Revival. If we can freeze a mind and bring it back with its memories intact then we can wait for technology to repair the damage that necessitated freezing the body in the first place - assuming the preserved mind does not decay further over time. Factors that are probably significant here are whether freezing the body below a certain temperature actually makes revival more difficult. If not, then the colder the better, since the longer the body can be frozen the higher the probability the revived body can be repaired. One more thing... Uploading our minds into computers is not "immortality". A program would be a copy, not the original. Longer term, gradually replacing parts of a living mind with electronic components such that the mind felt a sense of continuous existence would be one way to transition from organic to machine. Immortality is continuation of our mind and personality. I hope to be frozen when I die. A slim chance is better than no chance at all. Cheers, Mark
I use it myself with a social group of 40 or so. I occasionally worry if they'll decide to add it to their growing list of abandoned offerings, which is probably a consideration for you too. More annoyingly, like most Google offerings, the interface is pretty crap so I can't imagine it would be enjoyable managing a list your size ;-)
Much as I prefer iOS, if I ever did decide to buy an Andriod device it would be either the usual cheap POS, or... a Transformer. The hardware looks quite decent with the keyboard and trackpad.
You mean you never unthinkingly type shit when thumping keys on slashdot? Now that you've had a good whine, how about you piss off and find a website for perfectionists.
Mars, a prison for the modern age, just like Australia was in its time. This time around it can be for copy write infringements.
Unlike when they sent their terrorist team to blow up the Greenpeace "Rainbow Warrior" boat in Auckland Harbour, New Zealand. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/about/history/the-bombing-of-the-rainbow-war/ With the French for "friends" who needs enemies?
That depends on which country you are talking about. In New Zealand cows graze on that stuff called grass.
I think you'll find Apple has been developing operating systems a bit longer than Android has been in use out there, and might just have touched on voice recognition a time or two.
"Statements from Jobs (RIP) about wanting to destroy Android even if it cost Apple all their wealth- shows the mentality within that company to stifle innovation of others." Ummm, no, it's the sign of someone EXTREMELY pissed off by the belief he had been betrayed by a two faced Google CEO Schmidt sneakily ripping off all of Apple's hard work and stabbing them in the back when he was a member of the Apple board of directors. I'm sure SJ thought "do no evil" is a load of shit marketing slogan as a consequence. It probably also bought home painful memories of when Microsoft stole from them, the difference being that this was being done by someone they had appointed to the Apple board and trusted. I would be spewing tacks as well. Not that I'm saying Jobs was a saint - he did some pretty shit things when he was a youngster - but put in that context it's pretty easy to see why he was ballistic.
I've noticed that perfectly reasonable comments like the above are deliberately and methodically voted down here on Slashdot. Is this a sign of some bizarre biased Apple hate-fest or are the "moderators" being paid to screw with Slashdot?
Funny, I use a 3GS and haven't noticed it being slow or frustrating running iOS5. I'm quite liking decent drop and drag in the calendar and the addition of iMessage (the former is even better on my iPad first gen). My only annoyance is Stanza (the worlds best eBook reader by far) is broken and Amazon haven't released an update. Amazon are usually useless at grabbing opportunities - ie., millions use Stanza, but Amazon hasn't been bright enough to release an update with a nice obvious way to buy stuff from their site. Instead they fail to update it and everyone moves to one of the dozens of free alternative readers whilst also feeling pissed off at Amazon. Those guys really are morons.
Apple accepts this app and they're attacked for being anti-gay, supporting homophobia, etc... If Apple rejects this app, they'll be attacked for infringing on free speech, supporting a particular political agenda, etc... Either way, you're pissing customers off.
But all I feel is schadenfreude. They got themselves into this mess by imposing editorial control over the iPhone in the first place. They made their bed, now they get to lie in it.
Meh. What mess? This is called free advertising...
What are you going to do? Get a bald headed guy with a British accent to play him? I got news for you pal, baldness will be cured in the 23rd century!
Cured? Sorry hairy one, but in the future your children (should you procreate through some devious means) will all be bald in order to ensure their massive genetically engineered brains can dissipate the extra heat. Politicians will still do so by keeping their mouths open - just like dogs. Us "baldies" are just preparing in advance.
You must be thinking of a generation ago. If you more familiar with Apple's current generation of laptops (as I am, since I own a Mac Book Pro), you'd know they have decent keys that don't mark the screen (which was a common problem with laptops of the era), and the power cable is a marvelous design that I'd like to see other manufacturers using - it's a magnetic connector that if you trip over or accidentally pull on, just disconnects - no damage to the laptop or cord. You have to actually see and use it to appreciate what a difference it makes.
BTW, I'm not a "Mac-head". I'm one of those platform-agnostic people that is comfortable in pretty much any environment, and appreciates good design.
"I thought the sheep in New Zealand were the pirates. Oh, no, that's the Kea. Notorious theives, Kea - they'll steal anything they can reach. I've heard that one group of Kea have now set up a car dealership, using bits they've stolen off tourist's vehicles. Wouldn't surprise me at all if they've learned how to surf the Internet and pirate software." For those that don't know, the Kea is a giant mountain parrot native to New Zealand, that has a habit of damaging cars - eg., pulling off mirrors, snaping aerial, let down the tyres, shred seats and so on.
From Bill Clinton's autobiography: "The Republican leaders had received a memorandum from William Kristol, former chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle, urging them to kill health-care reform. Kristol said the Republicans couldn't afford to allow anything to pass; a success on health care would present a "serious political threat to the Republican Party," while its demise would be a "monumental setback for the President." At the end of May, at a Memorial Day retreat, the Republican congressional leaders decided to adopt Kristol's position. I wasn't surprised that Gingrich would follow Kristol's hard line; his goal was to win the House and push the country to the right. Dole, on the other hand, was genuinely interested in health care and knew we needed to reform the system. But he was running for President. All he had to do was to hold forty-one of his fellow Republicans for a filibuster and we were sunk."
Uhhh... guys have X and Y chromosomes (usually one of each), women have X chromosomes (usually two). Your SO needs to go back to school :)
Because they are carrying bombs.
Except that barely half of the population in China actually speaks Mandarin, and even then, most of those that speak it speak so so as a second language. The written language is much more pervasive. http://english.people.com.cn/200501/03/eng20050103 _169500.html
The relevant sections:
"Mandarin's status as China's standard language has been further enhanced as nearly 53 percent of the 1.3 billion Chinese in the country can communicate with others via Mandarin, said a national survey released here Sunday."
And most still speak in their local dialect instead:
"The survey also shows 86 percent of the population can speak regional Chinese dialects, and nearly 5 percent use the languages of China's 55 ethnic minority groups to communicate."
Even then, the numbers might be higher than reality: I suspect it is easier to interview people in the cities than those in the countryside :)
The funniest thing would be in a court case having the defending lawyer pop up and ask Sony, "so... you've been selling MP3 players, walkmans, and other devices, encouraging users to buy them and rip songs onto them, but now you're saying it is wrong if one of your clients repeats your message?" :)