Well, what would happen if someone were to write a program that could write a 'statistically optimal paper', as we've seen with the statistically optimal music?
You feed it a bunch of texts about your subject and specify a length, and it'll spit out a grammatically correct paper, all to the machine checker's checks.
In this way, you can't be blamed for plagiarism and you'll get a good grade.
By the way, I'm curious as to what kind of tech is behind this system. Neural nets, other types of classifiers? They say it has to learn, so I wonder which bits of the field of machine learning they used.
Very nice example. This is why I think genetic/evolutionary algorithms are so interesting and will definately be used a lot more in the future.
On a similar note, there's genetic programming, where the building blocks are pieces of syntactically correct code("if", "then", "for"), and your fitness function is how fast the resultant program can solve a particular problem.
Its interesting to see that given a problem like sorting, genetic programming will come up with the same solutions that we humans have already thought of. So that must mean there are no algorithms that are more efficient than the ones we have already thought of.
I wonder if maybe one day this will solve the P=NP problem.:-)
Yep, definitely. Also the introduction of Vectran lines which are thinner and thus provide less drag. Stainless steel hardware on rigs is great because it is strong and durable, and doesn't get rough edges which can fray the fabric on your harness.
I'd say the biggest benefits in the parachuting industry are from materials science and electronics.
Like the parent said, most accidents today happen under perfectly good parachutes, where the material used is no longer at fault, rather the pilot.
Well, at least in Tomb Raider 2 they have some honest stunt work, like BASE jumping and flying with Birdman Suits. Very cool scenes with no CG in it... although the part where they run out of the building is a bit fake. You can't run with a Birdman suit. You can only waddle forward, much like a penguin or a duck.:-) But for the rest, a big thumbs up for that scene.
One might wonder if these companies contributing code to a version of the Linux kernel would mean other intellectual property debacles a la SCO. But, according to an article written by Slashdot's Roblimo on Newsforge, there is legal stuff you must sign before your code is allowed into the tree:
"...as long as you include a paragraph's worth of non-onerous disclaimer (basically an agreement to release your code under the GPL or LGPL) with each submission, along with disclosure of any patents, patents pending or other claims you know about that might encumber the submitted code."
So I think they've got that base covered. Good Thing(tm).:-)
I'm perfectly happy just having spools of cables running free around the house, behind furniture.. over tables. I think they are happier that way too.
That's what I have in my student apartment. Just cables running along the walls. It makes for easy adding of more cables too.:-) And you don't notice them after a while either...
I guess if I ever move into a real home I will do it properly.:-)
I say hit them where it counts: don't buy camera's with silly proprietary protocols for transferring fotos. All digital camera's that use a form of USB mass storage will work perfectly under Linux, in my experience. Pretty much to plug and play. Plug it in, tail/var/log/messages for USB messages to see which device in/dev/ its been assigned, and mount it. Easy. Using it in Windows 98 SE was a lot more work, having to install some funky driver first.
On the other hand, my girlfriend bought a nice scanner for a very nice price. A HP Scanjet 3500c, which uses USB, but isn't supported *yet* by SANE, so I still need "that other partition" if we want to scan stuff. Linux support wasn't one of things she looked for when she bought it, unfortunately.
So which submissions are these and how do you know about them being submitted to the Slashdot queue? Got some links to the interesting/new/good stories you mention?
Try Really Slick Screensavers. They're OpenGL, but by God, are they beautiful. I basically use xscreensaver to start them up, but don't use any screensavers provided in the xscreensaver package, cause they are all ugly compared to these Really Slick Screensavers.
Okay, cool. Thanks for the tip. But I'm kinda interested in shaping the downlink too. I mean, this is useful for when you are downloading a large file through FTP or some P2P program or BitTorrent, and you want to be able to continue browsing or whatever.
I like wondershaper... well, I used to, when it worked. It ran on my RH7.3 server perfectly, but now that I've switched to Debian stable, it no longer works. I'm using 2.4.18-586tsc, and whenever I run the script, all traffic through my ppp0 (pptp adsl connection) is blocked. Very annoying...
Anybody else with Debian stable with kernel version 2.4.18 who has a working wondershaper? Any tips???
Excuse me, but I'm not getting how you would implement a Gentoo Knoppix? The programs you are going to be distributing are going to be binaries anyway (compile things after you booted the CD??), so a source based knoppix makes no sense, except in the case where you are going to be using it as an install CD for putting it onto your HD.
You could even out the imbalance by leaving your bittorrent download thingy on for a period of time after the download is finished. The period of time would be the download/upload ratio * the time it took to download the file. In this way you'll have uploaded the file at least once and contributed your share.
eMule uses the eDonkey/Overnet network, so all users using Overnet (my P2P of choice) and eDonkey are sources too. There's not as many users as KaZaa, but you can find nearly anything.
I haven't given lMule a shot, but its looking very promising.
When I lived in Kenya we used to have the same problem. Our landline phone would just die and we'd go walking along the line seeing if we could perhaps solve the problem ourself (the service guy was notoriously difficult to get to your house), and several times it turned out a section of cabling had been ripped down and used for various purposes, the most popular being a clothesline, to hang the laundry out to dry.
In other parts of Kenya the copper would be used by the locals to make bracelets, which they would sell to visiting tourists. Traffic signs along the road were also very popular sources of metal (for roofing or other needs).
In skydiving there are 2 electronic devices (made with hardware chips with software on them) similar to the dive computers: audible altimeter and automatic activation device (AAD).
An audible altimeter is mounted in your helmet next to your ear, it beeps when you reach a certain altitude so you know its pull time. It is meant as a backup to your wrist altimeter, but a lot of skydivers these days rely on their audible as their primary altimeter, with their wrist as secondary, because it is more convenient. An audible will remind you no matter what which altitude it is, while a wrist altimeter is a passive device, requiring you to look at it. When this device fails, you have a possibly dangerous situation. There are still a number of things that have to happen before someone bounces, but it can happen.
One of the things that prevents people from hurting themselves after they don't hear their audible or they're unconcious or whatever, is an automatic activation device. This is a small computer which sits in your rig (the backpack which houses your parachute and reserve) and monitors air pressure and pressure changes. You switch it on at the beginning of the day and it will monitor the air pressure continuously from then on. If it determines you are still in freefall at 750 feet, it will deploy your reserve parachute.
This is also a device which, when it fails, will probably mean someone dies. Of course, the AAD is like a safety net for a circus trapeze artists. A trapeze artist does their thing while considering the safety net not to be there. Same for skydivers. The AAD really is a last resort measure, and you never act as if it were there. So for a situation where an AAD is needed to arise, things have already gotten pretty out of hand. Statistically, the chance that the AAD will also fail at that moment is very small.
Of course, if don't have an AAD installed, not hearing your audible is a lot more dangerous. In most countries more advanced skydivers are allowed to jump without one.
So, although these devices are designed to save lives, when they fail, then could kill. It is not as extreme as an insulin pump or a dive computer, of course, where your life depends on it working correctly.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, what would happen if someone were to write a program that could write a 'statistically optimal paper', as we've seen with the statistically optimal music?
You feed it a bunch of texts about your subject and specify a length, and it'll spit out a grammatically correct paper, all to the machine checker's checks.
In this way, you can't be blamed for plagiarism and you'll get a good grade.
By the way, I'm curious as to what kind of tech is behind this system. Neural nets, other types of classifiers? They say it has to learn, so I wonder which bits of the field of machine learning they used.
Cheers,
Costyn.
So the membership list does not actually include their email addresses? That is too bad. Means we have to go hunting for them ourselves?
Cheers,
CvD.
Very nice example. This is why I think genetic/evolutionary algorithms are so interesting and will definately be used a lot more in the future.
:-)
On a similar note, there's genetic programming, where the building blocks are pieces of syntactically correct code("if", "then", "for"), and your fitness function is how fast the resultant program can solve a particular problem.
Its interesting to see that given a problem like sorting, genetic programming will come up with the same solutions that we humans have already thought of. So that must mean there are no algorithms that are more efficient than the ones we have already thought of.
I wonder if maybe one day this will solve the P=NP problem.
Cheers,
Costyn.
Yep, definitely. Also the introduction of Vectran lines which are thinner and thus provide less drag. Stainless steel hardware on rigs is great because it is strong and durable, and doesn't get rough edges which can fray the fabric on your harness.
I'd say the biggest benefits in the parachuting industry are from materials science and electronics.
Like the parent said, most accidents today happen under perfectly good parachutes, where the material used is no longer at fault, rather the pilot.
Cheers,
Costyn.
p.s. Synn, you a skydiver, eh?
Well, at least in Tomb Raider 2 they have some honest stunt work, like BASE jumping and flying with Birdman Suits. Very cool scenes with no CG in it... although the part where they run out of the building is a bit fake. You can't run with a Birdman suit. You can only waddle forward, much like a penguin or a duck. :-) But for the rest, a big thumbs up for that scene.
Cheers,
Costyn.
Variable sword
shadow square wire
Wouldn't that be 'falcus'? Rhymes with 'fallus'...
One might wonder if these companies contributing code to a version of the Linux kernel would mean other intellectual property debacles a la SCO. But, according to an article written by Slashdot's Roblimo on Newsforge, there is legal stuff you must sign before your code is allowed into the tree:
:-)
"...as long as you include a paragraph's worth of non-onerous disclaimer (basically an agreement to release your code under the GPL or LGPL) with each submission, along with disclosure of any patents, patents pending or other claims you know about that might encumber the submitted code."
So I think they've got that base covered. Good Thing(tm).
And they're not using Linux as the webserver:
Sez Netcraft:
The site www.celinuxforum.org is running Apache/1.3.27 (Unix) FrontPage/5.0.2.2623 on Solaris 8.
Bastards... (just kidding... I think this is a great initiative!)
I'm perfectly happy just having spools of cables running free around the house, behind furniture.. over tables. I think they are happier that way too.
:-) And you don't notice them after a while either...
:-)
That's what I have in my student apartment. Just cables running along the walls. It makes for easy adding of more cables too.
I guess if I ever move into a real home I will do it properly.
Cheers,
Costyn.
I say hit them where it counts: don't buy camera's with silly proprietary protocols for transferring fotos. All digital camera's that use a form of USB mass storage will work perfectly under Linux, in my experience. Pretty much to plug and play. Plug it in, tail /var/log/messages for USB messages to see which device in /dev/ its been assigned, and mount it. Easy. Using it in Windows 98 SE was a lot more work, having to install some funky driver first.
On the other hand, my girlfriend bought a nice scanner for a very nice price. A HP Scanjet 3500c, which uses USB, but isn't supported *yet* by SANE, so I still need "that other partition" if we want to scan stuff. Linux support wasn't one of things she looked for when she bought it, unfortunately.
Cheers,
Costyn.
So which submissions are these and how do you know about them being submitted to the Slashdot queue? Got some links to the interesting/new/good stories you mention?
Cheers,
Costyn.
Try Really Slick Screensavers. They're OpenGL, but by God, are they beautiful. I basically use xscreensaver to start them up, but don't use any screensavers provided in the xscreensaver package, cause they are all ugly compared to these Really Slick Screensavers.
Cheers,
Costyn.
Yeah, 'interesting' would be a much better moderation. :-)
CNN mentions it, too...
Okay, cool. Thanks for the tip. But I'm kinda interested in shaping the downlink too. I mean, this is useful for when you are downloading a large file through FTP or some P2P program or BitTorrent, and you want to be able to continue browsing or whatever.
Hmmm... recompiling kernels sucks... oh well.
Cheers,
Costyn.
I like wondershaper... well, I used to, when it worked. It ran on my RH7.3 server perfectly, but now that I've switched to Debian stable, it no longer works. I'm using 2.4.18-586tsc, and whenever I run the script, all traffic through my ppp0 (pptp adsl connection) is blocked. Very annoying...
Anybody else with Debian stable with kernel version 2.4.18 who has a working wondershaper? Any tips???
Cheers,
Costyn.
Excuse me, but I'm not getting how you would implement a Gentoo Knoppix? The programs you are going to be distributing are going to be binaries anyway (compile things after you booted the CD??), so a source based knoppix makes no sense, except in the case where you are going to be using it as an install CD for putting it onto your HD.
Cheers,
Costyn.
You could even out the imbalance by leaving your bittorrent download thingy on for a period of time after the download is finished. The period of time would be the download/upload ratio * the time it took to download the file. In this way you'll have uploaded the file at least once and contributed your share.
Cheers,
Costyn.
Yeah, and in order to have KaZaa, you need Windows.. so its a catch-22. How do you download Windows when you have neither Windows nor KaZaa?
eMule uses the eDonkey/Overnet network, so all users using Overnet (my P2P of choice) and eDonkey are sources too. There's not as many users as KaZaa, but you can find nearly anything.
I haven't given lMule a shot, but its looking very promising.
Cheers,
Costyn.
So is this the much touted Vodafone Live? Or a real UMTS rollout?
When I lived in Kenya we used to have the same problem. Our landline phone would just die and we'd go walking along the line seeing if we could perhaps solve the problem ourself (the service guy was notoriously difficult to get to your house), and several times it turned out a section of cabling had been ripped down and used for various purposes, the most popular being a clothesline, to hang the laundry out to dry.
In other parts of Kenya the copper would be used by the locals to make bracelets, which they would sell to visiting tourists. Traffic signs along the road were also very popular sources of metal (for roofing or other needs).
Cheers,
Costyn.
In skydiving there are 2 electronic devices (made with hardware chips with software on them) similar to the dive computers: audible altimeter and automatic activation device (AAD).
An audible altimeter is mounted in your helmet next to your ear, it beeps when you reach a certain altitude so you know its pull time. It is meant as a backup to your wrist altimeter, but a lot of skydivers these days rely on their audible as their primary altimeter, with their wrist as secondary, because it is more convenient. An audible will remind you no matter what which altitude it is, while a wrist altimeter is a passive device, requiring you to look at it. When this device fails, you have a possibly dangerous situation. There are still a number of things that have to happen before someone bounces, but it can happen.
One of the things that prevents people from hurting themselves after they don't hear their audible or they're unconcious or whatever, is an automatic activation device. This is a small computer which sits in your rig (the backpack which houses your parachute and reserve) and monitors air pressure and pressure changes. You switch it on at the beginning of the day and it will monitor the air pressure continuously from then on. If it determines you are still in freefall at 750 feet, it will deploy your reserve parachute.
This is also a device which, when it fails, will probably mean someone dies. Of course, the AAD is like a safety net for a circus trapeze artists. A trapeze artist does their thing while considering the safety net not to be there. Same for skydivers. The AAD really is a last resort measure, and you never act as if it were there. So for a situation where an AAD is needed to arise, things have already gotten pretty out of hand. Statistically, the chance that the AAD will also fail at that moment is very small.
Of course, if don't have an AAD installed, not hearing your audible is a lot more dangerous. In most countries more advanced skydivers are allowed to jump without one.
So, although these devices are designed to save lives, when they fail, then could kill. It is not as extreme as an insulin pump or a dive computer, of course, where your life depends on it working correctly.
Most popular audible: Larsen & Brusgaard ProTrack
Most popular automatic activation device: Airtec Cypres
Cheers,
Costyn.
Costyn.