This is a very probable conclusion. After all, it has been illustrated countless of times before in history. For example, take Isaac Newton, someone who could be consider the founder of classical physics. Newton did not excel in his studies in comparison to others; only when he reached the age of 21 did he develop his brilliant ideas and observations in utter seclusions. Now take Albert Einstein. Einstein was born in 1879. The school system did not treat him as anything special. He went with the other neigborhood children to a regular, average school. Furthermore, at the age of 16, he applied to the Swiss Institute of Physics but got rejected, and he failed to graduate from his subsequent enrollment at Zurich University.
In all honesty, take a look at "child geniuses" that prospered early on. We hear every once in a while about a kid that starts college at the age of 8, or 10; and that's the last time we hear about them. It is the people that consistently produce significant progress that "show".
One subject that seems to be an exception to this rule is the arts. For example, Mozart--and many other great musicians--were fluent in their art form very early on. But, I think that it very well might be that those "early bloomers" might not be all they're made out to be.
This just goes to show how little financial support there is for open source projects. Everyone thinks that the F/OSS and contracts will relieve everything, but the truth is, open source software needs all the help that it can get. Mozilla Firefox is one of the few projects that was lucky enough to gain widespread recognition, but in order for open source to survive, we must all work for it, not take it for granted.
You may not realize it, but there are countless of excellent OSS projects out there. Imagine the amount of people that have monetary troubles every single day; now image that as being a lot more difficult, and you will see the struggles of an open source programmer. Advertising and the occassional donation simply ISN'T going to do it. The worst part is, no one has figured out a source for an actual revenue stream. If we don't ensure the survival of an increasingly popular commercial model, we might face another "dotcom" crash--after all, money has to come from somewhere.
Why are they requiring a HAL Exoskeleton to make the climb? My father is an experienced mountain climber, and I know that one could very easily scale 280 meters in less than an hour; carrying a passenger will obviously complicate things quite a bit, but is additional (very expensive, I might add) technology truly necessary? According to the article, "Using HAL, someone who could normally lift 100 kilograms at a leg press machine could lift 180 kilograms"--not an amazing improvement.
Nonetheless, the climber is pursuing an honorable goal. He states, "I am trying create new possibilities for the disabled as well as realise a dream. My hope is that through this I can give courage and hope to all disabled people in difficult circumstances."
I forgot to mention: hacking "capture the flag", as the article calls it, is our equivalent of Root Thix Box, a competition aimed at controlling a "box" (system) for the longest amount of time through various exploitation means, most of which go beyond the topics covered in the "boot camp."
I am a systems administrator at www.hackthissite.org (HTS), and at HTS, we intend to do just what this camp intends to--but for a nice sum of $0.
Although we are currently working on a new version of the site (dubbed "HTSv4"), the current place still has plenty of opportunities to gain knowledge in (ethical and legal) areas of computer security, such as XSS injection, SQL injection, buffer overflows, programming, and countless of other topics--all through personal experience with the "missions" on the site.
I think it is very important for people who are going into computer development of any kind to be aware of these issues. Personal experience and skill in computer security can only be beneficial, and will teach one to code applications that are capable of defense from outside intrusion.
Because just this December I was travelling to Colorado in a car, and guess what I was using to watch movies? That's right, a PSP with UMD discs. I admit, they can be tedious; just like many other technologies, one piece of information (a movie, a book, an album, etc.) per storage device is starting to become obsolete (notice how companies put more and more bonus content on DVD's) because of the vast amount of space available on modern media. The UMD disc was inconvenient in this respect in that it held one game/movie per disc, and it was not writable, and not supported by practically any player other than PSP--a console which in itself isn't all that great.
Overall, I'm glad that this format, among others, is becoming extinct. The closer we get to a universal storage format (flash drives seem to be the popular candidate), the faster we'll get to complete integration of information. Benjamin Feingold, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, said in the article, "We're hoping the format's going to be reinvigorated with next-generation capability that may include living-room or normal television playback." I, on the other hand, hope not.
Microsoft has been experiencing a lot of disorganization recently. With the qualification of some machines as un-Vista capable, it's delay of Vista until January 2007, popular technology experts' Opinions that "America isn't ready for Microsoft's Vista", and all kinds of project delays (Media Center, XBox, etc.) they are in need of some clear visual indication as to the direction they must take. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.
I find this statement from an InformationWeek article to clear up what ProClarity exactly does: "ProClarity makes analysis and visualization software." Much of this software is in very popular demand now; a friend of mine just started a job at a company called SSS, which makes visualization software for modeling all kinds of information and displaying it in a manner that is very informative and interactive. Google released something similar, Google Analytics, for websites, and it has been a huge success (heck, Slashdot uses it).
Overall, I think this is a very smart move on Microsoft's part. Software for organizing information can be very useful. It's also nice to see some Microsoft articles on Slashdot for a change (even though I'm not a big fan of Microsoft), rather than the usual Googlomination.
If anyone's interested, the Guinness World Records has information about various other expensive technology. For example, take this cell phone developed by Davis Morris International:
A cellphone designed by David Morris International, of London, UK, sold for $104, 050 in 1996. Made entirely from 18-carat gold, it has a keypad encrusted with pink and white diamonds. David Morris International is one of the world's most high-profile jewellers. The company supplied all the jewelry worn in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (UK, 1971).
As it turns out, the Hubble Telescope is the most expensive telescope--taking US$3 billion--and the most expensive domain name is (ironically) business.com, going for a wholesome £4.6 million (almost US$8 million). The Dreamcast computer game Shenmue cost $20 million to develop, and the Wilson WAMM system (Wilson Audio Modular Monitor) speakers cost $225,000.
It's entertaining to see little ventures like this. But let's face, the MP3 player is just for kicks. This is slightly interesting; at most.
This includes the Ajax phenomenon being actively purused by Microsoft and Google.
They mean pursued (I'm assuming), not perused.
This is a pretty long article, so I'll sum it up for you guys by taking the important passages:
Key Aspects of Web 2.0
- The Web and all its connected devices as one global platform of reusable services and data
- Data consumption and remixing from all sources, particularly user generated data
- Continuous and seamless update of software and data, often very rapidly
- Rich and interactive user interfaces
- Architecture of participation that encourages user contribution
...
In a way similar to how open source software (OSS) democratized and decentralized control of software creation, commoditizing it relentlessly along the way, Web 2.0 sites is doing same thing with the control structures of society and business. Web 2.0 represents the unyielding shift towards putting the power to publish, communicate, socialize, and engage, using an almost-dizzying array of methods, in online two-way discourse and interchange. The Web is the medium, but it's powered by people.
...
We are seeing surprisingly active interest in the conference circuit, with a large number of sessions about SOA, Ajax, and Web 2.0 in the enterprise in the next few months.
Also, this image is a particularly interesting comparison of the growth of various Web 2.0 sites. The author finishes with some predictions:
Remaining predictions: 1-The hype is going to ramp down quite a bit this year. 2- People will focus much more on using the ideas and ignoring the Web 2.0 hypesters more often. And 3- A lot of folks will still hate the term Web 2.0.
For those of you who are too lazy to read Section 108, basically it says the following:
1. Libraries can reproduce (copy) at most one instance of a copyrighted book if they promise to acknowledge copyright and not make money off it.
2. Copyrighted books/sources can be copied up to 3 times only for archival, preservation and research purposes; digital format archives/copies may not be distributed.
3. Copies of lost/damaged/obsolete material can be made up to 3 times if no actual manufacturer copy can be obtained and the copies are not made available to the public.
4. If a user requests an interlibrary loan or wants a material that cannot be obtained at a reasonable price, they may make a copy of a small section of the material, if the material becomes property of the user (e.g., too much late fees), and the library displays a copyright warning.
5. The library may not reproduce, display, or distribute work that is in its last 20 years of copyright if the work is still commercially circulated, a copy can be obtained at a reasonable price, or the copyright owner makes a special notice.
Keep in mind this only applies to text: "The rights of reproduction and distribution under this section do not apply to a musical work, a pictorial, graphic or sculptural work, or a motion picture or other audiovisual work other than an audiovisual work dealing with news."
If you're unaware about the current.xxx domain battle, see these earlier Slashdot posts throughout the years:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and tons of news articles.
Overall, a very interesting battle: should we place man's vices (it's true, admit it) in one desolate, but convenient group, or leave them interspersed with everything else?
As we all know, today is the Information Age. For this reason, I believe that information should not be restricted anymore. I know that as an individualistic--as opposed to collectivistic--society we find the individual's achievements laudable and attributable. However, as we have seen over the past decade, movements towards free information have been very successful. "Piracy" has rampaged. Firefox has flourished. The internet has become (in my opinion, at least) one of the greatest inventions of mankind. EVER. Because of Tim Berners-Lee's refusal to privatize or commercialize the internet.
Sweden is a strong country as far as free information goes; very little is restricted. For example, the popular torrent website The Pirate Bay, a warehouse of torrents for popular files is hosted in Sweden and hasn't had much problems with the Swedish authorities. Interestingly, its corresponding crime rate is one of the lowest in the world--60 people imprisoned per 100,000, as compared to the United States' 690.
Call me unpatriotic, call me crazy, but I think this "Pirate Party" might very well just be a good idea. It will give people a different perspective on things: It is possible to not restrict information, and still manage a flourishing--if not something greater--economy and society.
This is a very, very, very daring venture, and if South Korea succeeds, I can only congratulate them with all my heart. But, one has to ask; are "robots" ready to enter society? We have been seeing things like ATMs, the internet, and various other technologies exploited over the years, whether for identity theft, spam, etc. If the same thing happens to robots, we could be facing some problems.
But to be honest, after reading the article, I am quite impressed. I did not know this. Take, for example:
Since January, Koreans have been able to watch television broadcasts on cellphones, free, thanks to government-subsidized technology. In April, South Korea will introduce the first nationwide superfast wireless Internet service, called WiBro, eventually making it possible for Koreans to remain online on the go -- at 10 megabits per second, faster than most conventional broadband connections.
I'll come straight out with it. That is very impressive. However, as I have stated before, technology--while helpful--can cause problems as well. I mean, it's great that (from the article) "Two years ago, after the opposition-led National Assembly impeached President Roh Moo Hyun, a consensus began forming on the Internet that the move was politically motivated -- two hours after the vote took place, Mr. Chang said. That quickly led to mass demonstrations," he said. "That kind of thing had never happened in Korea before. Everyone is connected to everyone else, so issues spread very fast and kind of unpredictably." However, then you have incidents like this:
There has been at least one unpredictable side effect: fierce witch hunts. In a case that caused national soul-searching, a woman riding the subway with her dog last year refused to clean up after it defecated in the car. One angry passenger photographed her with a camera-equipped cellphone and later posted the photos. Soon, all of wired South Korea seemed to be on the hunt for "Dog Poop Girl." Several misidentified women were verbally attacked, and finally the woman herself was identified on the Internet and humiliated as the topic of countless online discussions.
Honestly, I think South Korea might be moving a little too fast for its own good. People aren't getting a chance to adapt. But then again, who knows?
"But eventually robots could change how we live in a way we can't predict right now," Mr. Kim said. "It's like the PC. No one ever thought the PC and the Internet would transform our society the way they have."
Re:Implications regarding the Standard Model?
on
Neutrino Mass Confirmed
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I mean, String Theory, not Wikipedia, sorry about that (forgot to include the title of the article, silly me).
Implications regarding the Standard Model?
on
Neutrino Mass Confirmed
·
· Score: 4, Informative
This is a very interesting conclusion. I am currently taking a modern physics II class at a college in my town, and I live 15 minutes away from Fermilab. In fact, our professor is a scientist at Fermilab that only comes in this term to teach our class. The interesting question, though, is (and I know it's small), what is the exact mass that they obtained (if any so far)? Of course, this would have to be given in eV (electron volts), but assuming it's very small (~E-3 eV) (EDIT: I just looked at the press release linked to at the end of this post, and indeed, it is on that scale!), this could prove to have some interesting conclusions. I actually found this passage in the article that explains it better than I could:
"In particle physics there is the Standard Model which describes how the fundamental building blocks of matter behave and interact with each other," explained Dr Falk Harris.
"And this model tells us that neutrinos should have no mass. So the fact that we have now got independent measurements of neutrinos saying that they must have mass, means that this Standard Model is going to have be revised or superseded by something else."
This is very interesting because of its possible re-affirmation of Wikipedia. I'm not going to take out my string theory book right now to see if calculations of a positive neutrino mass correspond to any viable conception in string theory, but a re-affirmation and eventual proof of string theory could spur as great of an innovation as the concept of an atom.
We'll have to wait and see, but for anyone who would like more information, Fermilab's website has an article about the discovery.
1. Use $150,000,000 to request an exabyte of information for a month.
2. Proceed to write internet worm that does a distributed upload of random garbage.
3. Amazon is unable to satisfy your requests since no one has ever produced an exabyte.
4. Demand Amazon pay you back damages with a multiple of your original investment.
5. Profit!
I rub my hands together in evil dictatorial glee. Mwahahahaha.
While it may seem silly, the dangers explained in the article are reality. Myspace has 56 million users. With all of the personal information I have seen on profiles, it is only expectable that it is misused someday.
A few months ago, a friend of a student at my school experienced a horrible ordeal. Her best friend was murdered and raped by an assaulter who had obtained her personal information from her "Facebook" (another popular--mainly among college students--online community service).
Either way, I find it absurd how much people disclose on their profiles. I won't post any links, but people have their addresses, home phone numbers, and--the perfect appetizer for an attacker--half-dressed pictures. I don't know about you, but that smells like trouble to me.
Slashdot Mirror
This is a very probable conclusion. After all, it has been illustrated countless of times before in history. For example, take Isaac Newton, someone who could be consider the founder of classical physics. Newton did not excel in his studies in comparison to others; only when he reached the age of 21 did he develop his brilliant ideas and observations in utter seclusions. Now take Albert Einstein. Einstein was born in 1879. The school system did not treat him as anything special. He went with the other neigborhood children to a regular, average school. Furthermore, at the age of 16, he applied to the Swiss Institute of Physics but got rejected, and he failed to graduate from his subsequent enrollment at Zurich University.
In all honesty, take a look at "child geniuses" that prospered early on. We hear every once in a while about a kid that starts college at the age of 8, or 10; and that's the last time we hear about them. It is the people that consistently produce significant progress that "show".
One subject that seems to be an exception to this rule is the arts. For example, Mozart--and many other great musicians--were fluent in their art form very early on. But, I think that it very well might be that those "early bloomers" might not be all they're made out to be.
This just goes to show how little financial support there is for open source projects. Everyone thinks that the F/OSS and contracts will relieve everything, but the truth is, open source software needs all the help that it can get. Mozilla Firefox is one of the few projects that was lucky enough to gain widespread recognition, but in order for open source to survive, we must all work for it, not take it for granted.
You may not realize it, but there are countless of excellent OSS projects out there. Imagine the amount of people that have monetary troubles every single day; now image that as being a lot more difficult, and you will see the struggles of an open source programmer. Advertising and the occassional donation simply ISN'T going to do it. The worst part is, no one has figured out a source for an actual revenue stream. If we don't ensure the survival of an increasingly popular commercial model, we might face another "dotcom" crash--after all, money has to come from somewhere.
Why are they requiring a HAL Exoskeleton to make the climb? My father is an experienced mountain climber, and I know that one could very easily scale 280 meters in less than an hour; carrying a passenger will obviously complicate things quite a bit, but is additional (very expensive, I might add) technology truly necessary? According to the article, "Using HAL, someone who could normally lift 100 kilograms at a leg press machine could lift 180 kilograms"--not an amazing improvement.
Nonetheless, the climber is pursuing an honorable goal. He states, "I am trying create new possibilities for the disabled as well as realise a dream. My hope is that through this I can give courage and hope to all disabled people in difficult circumstances."
I, for one, welcome our new silent Big Brother cockroach overlords.
I forgot to mention: hacking "capture the flag", as the article calls it, is our equivalent of Root Thix Box, a competition aimed at controlling a "box" (system) for the longest amount of time through various exploitation means, most of which go beyond the topics covered in the "boot camp."
I am a systems administrator at www.hackthissite.org (HTS), and at HTS, we intend to do just what this camp intends to--but for a nice sum of $0.
Although we are currently working on a new version of the site (dubbed "HTSv4"), the current place still has plenty of opportunities to gain knowledge in (ethical and legal) areas of computer security, such as XSS injection, SQL injection, buffer overflows, programming, and countless of other topics--all through personal experience with the "missions" on the site.
I think it is very important for people who are going into computer development of any kind to be aware of these issues. Personal experience and skill in computer security can only be beneficial, and will teach one to code applications that are capable of defense from outside intrusion.
Because just this December I was travelling to Colorado in a car, and guess what I was using to watch movies? That's right, a PSP with UMD discs. I admit, they can be tedious; just like many other technologies, one piece of information (a movie, a book, an album, etc.) per storage device is starting to become obsolete (notice how companies put more and more bonus content on DVD's) because of the vast amount of space available on modern media. The UMD disc was inconvenient in this respect in that it held one game/movie per disc, and it was not writable, and not supported by practically any player other than PSP--a console which in itself isn't all that great.
Overall, I'm glad that this format, among others, is becoming extinct. The closer we get to a universal storage format (flash drives seem to be the popular candidate), the faster we'll get to complete integration of information. Benjamin Feingold, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, said in the article, "We're hoping the format's going to be reinvigorated with next-generation capability that may include living-room or normal television playback." I, on the other hand, hope not.
Microsoft has been experiencing a lot of disorganization recently. With the qualification of some machines as un-Vista capable, it's delay of Vista until January 2007, popular technology experts' Opinions that "America isn't ready for Microsoft's Vista", and all kinds of project delays (Media Center, XBox, etc.) they are in need of some clear visual indication as to the direction they must take. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.
I find this statement from an InformationWeek article to clear up what ProClarity exactly does: "ProClarity makes analysis and visualization software." Much of this software is in very popular demand now; a friend of mine just started a job at a company called SSS, which makes visualization software for modeling all kinds of information and displaying it in a manner that is very informative and interactive. Google released something similar, Google Analytics, for websites, and it has been a huge success (heck, Slashdot uses it).
Overall, I think this is a very smart move on Microsoft's part. Software for organizing information can be very useful. It's also nice to see some Microsoft articles on Slashdot for a change (even though I'm not a big fan of Microsoft), rather than the usual Googlomination.
Sorry.
Here's some articles with more information:
TMCnet
InformationWeek
TechNews
That does it, Slashdot. April Fools is OVER.
If anyone's interested, the Guinness World Records has information about various other expensive technology. For example, take this cell phone developed by Davis Morris International:
A cellphone designed by David Morris International, of London, UK, sold for $104, 050 in 1996. Made entirely from 18-carat gold, it has a keypad encrusted with pink and white diamonds. David Morris International is one of the world's most high-profile jewellers. The company supplied all the jewelry worn in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (UK, 1971).
As it turns out, the Hubble Telescope is the most expensive telescope--taking US$3 billion--and the most expensive domain name is (ironically) business.com, going for a wholesome £4.6 million (almost US$8 million). The Dreamcast computer game Shenmue cost $20 million to develop, and the Wilson WAMM system (Wilson Audio Modular Monitor) speakers cost $225,000.
It's entertaining to see little ventures like this. But let's face, the MP3 player is just for kicks. This is slightly interesting; at most.
They mean pursued (I'm assuming), not perused.
This is a pretty long article, so I'll sum it up for you guys by taking the important passages:
Also, this image is a particularly interesting comparison of the growth of various Web 2.0 sites. The author finishes with some predictions:
Remaining predictions: 1-The hype is going to ramp down quite a bit this year. 2- People will focus much more on using the ideas and ignoring the Web 2.0 hypesters more often. And 3- A lot of folks will still hate the term Web 2.0.
For those of you who are too lazy to read Section 108, basically it says the following:
1. Libraries can reproduce (copy) at most one instance of a copyrighted book if they promise to acknowledge copyright and not make money off it.
2. Copyrighted books/sources can be copied up to 3 times only for archival, preservation and research purposes; digital format archives/copies may not be distributed.
3. Copies of lost/damaged/obsolete material can be made up to 3 times if no actual manufacturer copy can be obtained and the copies are not made available to the public.
4. If a user requests an interlibrary loan or wants a material that cannot be obtained at a reasonable price, they may make a copy of a small section of the material, if the material becomes property of the user (e.g., too much late fees), and the library displays a copyright warning.
5. The library may not reproduce, display, or distribute work that is in its last 20 years of copyright if the work is still commercially circulated, a copy can be obtained at a reasonable price, or the copyright owner makes a special notice.
Keep in mind this only applies to text: "The rights of reproduction and distribution under this section do not apply to a musical work, a pictorial, graphic or sculptural work, or a motion picture or other audiovisual work other than an audiovisual work dealing with news."
I'm sorry, the preview of the post renders the links differently--remove the "slashdot.org/" at the beginning of the hyperlink.
If you're unaware about the current .xxx domain battle, see these earlier Slashdot posts throughout the years:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and tons of news articles.
Overall, a very interesting battle: should we place man's vices (it's true, admit it) in one desolate, but convenient group, or leave them interspersed with everything else?
As we all know, today is the Information Age. For this reason, I believe that information should not be restricted anymore. I know that as an individualistic--as opposed to collectivistic--society we find the individual's achievements laudable and attributable. However, as we have seen over the past decade, movements towards free information have been very successful. "Piracy" has rampaged. Firefox has flourished. The internet has become (in my opinion, at least) one of the greatest inventions of mankind. EVER. Because of Tim Berners-Lee's refusal to privatize or commercialize the internet.
Sweden is a strong country as far as free information goes; very little is restricted. For example, the popular torrent website The Pirate Bay, a warehouse of torrents for popular files is hosted in Sweden and hasn't had much problems with the Swedish authorities. Interestingly, its corresponding crime rate is one of the lowest in the world--60 people imprisoned per 100,000, as compared to the United States' 690.
Call me unpatriotic, call me crazy, but I think this "Pirate Party" might very well just be a good idea. It will give people a different perspective on things: It is possible to not restrict information, and still manage a flourishing--if not something greater--economy and society.
I, for one, welcome our new pirate overlords.
But to be honest, after reading the article, I am quite impressed. I did not know this. Take, for example: I'll come straight out with it. That is very impressive. However, as I have stated before, technology--while helpful--can cause problems as well. I mean, it's great that (from the article) "Two years ago, after the opposition-led National Assembly impeached President Roh Moo Hyun, a consensus began forming on the Internet that the move was politically motivated -- two hours after the vote took place, Mr. Chang said. That quickly led to mass demonstrations," he said. "That kind of thing had never happened in Korea before. Everyone is connected to everyone else, so issues spread very fast and kind of unpredictably." However, then you have incidents like this:
Honestly, I think South Korea might be moving a little too fast for its own good. People aren't getting a chance to adapt. But then again, who knows?
I mean, String Theory, not Wikipedia, sorry about that (forgot to include the title of the article, silly me).
We'll have to wait and see, but for anyone who would like more information, Fermilab's website has an article about the discovery.
Security measures will make it impossible to e-mail the film to somebody else.
I think they should be giving out prizes not security measures to people who can e-mail a film.
1. Use $150,000,000 to request an exabyte of information for a month.
2. Proceed to write internet worm that does a distributed upload of random garbage.
3. Amazon is unable to satisfy your requests since no one has ever produced an exabyte.
4. Demand Amazon pay you back damages with a multiple of your original investment.
5. Profit!
I rub my hands together in evil dictatorial glee. Mwahahahaha.
Sorry, I just had to do that.
Yeah...because American Idol existed FOUR HUNDRED MILLION YEARS AGO!
Since over half of us Slashdotters don't RTFA, keep in mind they're talking about who won in ADVERTISING.
...what's a Super Bowl?
And I think I speak for all Slashdotters when I ask:
While it may seem silly, the dangers explained in the article are reality. Myspace has 56 million users. With all of the personal information I have seen on profiles, it is only expectable that it is misused someday.
A few months ago, a friend of a student at my school experienced a horrible ordeal. Her best friend was murdered and raped by an assaulter who had obtained her personal information from her "Facebook" (another popular--mainly among college students--online community service).
Either way, I find it absurd how much people disclose on their profiles. I won't post any links, but people have their addresses, home phone numbers, and--the perfect appetizer for an attacker--half-dressed pictures. I don't know about you, but that smells like trouble to me.