I was hoping someone would mention the Hitchens article, because it's just so comically baseless to anyone who actually reads it critically. To quote the link, "[Hitchens] claims lies have been told, but can only find one statement that could even be inferred as untrue - and even that's a stretch."
It's a laughing shame that anyone still takes that guy seriously.
BTW, I only heard the term "blog" within the last 2 years, yet one of the quotes from the article said this guy ran weblog for 4 years.
Is the term "blog" newer then this guy's service?
I started my first weblog with Pyra's (now Google's) Blogger service in December 1999, and people were certainly calling them "blogs" by then. IIRC Blogger started in spring 1999, but I'm not sure how or if the birth of the Blogger service coincides with the general usage of the term "blog".
Everybody's arguing about how VCD is not a new format, but nobody seems to know how old it actually is. Some think it actually came out around the same time as DVD. The fellow who wrote the article thinks it's a new format. One fellow isn't sure, but thinks it might be even older, but isn't quite sure. Egh. Apparently I'm the first who actually bothered to Google it. VCD is fifteen years old. It was created in 1987. Now, was that so difficult? And as a matter of trivia, the compact disc was originally invented with video in mind.
While my pessimistic overgeneralizing side (e.g. the irritating side) would like to agree with the statement that, "in any dispute over domains it's the money that wins," my rational and much more pleasant side forces to mention a counterexample: The recent court victory of the World Wildlife Fund (a nonprofit), over the World Wrestling Federation (extremely profitable) in a domain name suit concerning the letters "WWF." While I'm much too lazy to provide any relevant URLs, I'm sure you can all find them yourselves.
A method by which the complete works of the author William Shakespeare ("Works") may be reproduced using only simians ("Monkeys"), typewriters ("Typewriters"), and an infinite amount of time ("Time").
The method for reproducing the Works can be summarized as follows. The physical components required for reproducing the Works are Monkeys and Typewriters. A certain number of Monkeys is introduced into the process. This number shall be equal to infinity. An equal number of Typewriters are then introduced into the process. Thus, the process contains an infinitude of both Monkeys and Typewriters. Given these components, the process shall continue for a certain amount of Time. This amount of Time shall equal infinity. At the end of this Time, the Works will have been reproduced.
An exhaustive search for previous art was done by a team of lawyers ("Babboons"), and it was found that no previous process has been demonstrated that successfully reproduced the Works using only Monkeys and Typewriters.
A person who is both blind and deaf/mute still communicates using sign language. A computer set up in this fashion could aid a blind deaf person just as well as a seeing deaf person, as blind people are no less intelligent than seeing ones, and know how to stand in front of a camera. And as long as they're facing the camera, the software will interpret their gestures just the same as it would a seeing person, and translate accordingly. I'm not saying that this could be used to allow disabled persons to play Quake or use CAD software, but using something like this to simply translate the words of a non-speaking person so that their voice can be heard would be an invaluable tool.
The real breakthrough here could be for the disabled. A system like this could allow deaf and mute people to communicate with the computer using American Sign Language, wearing brightly colored gloves. The coding would be a lot more difficult, but this sort of thing is definitely possible. Of course, many deaf and mute people can just use the keyboard and mouse, but those who are also blind or disabled in another way (lacking the finer coordination needed to use a regular keyboard, perhaps, due to a mental disability) could benefit greatly from this technology. With a few more advances in speech recognition, computers could soon be used as translators between speaking people and non-speaking ones. Yeah, the technology makes it neat to swing a virtual lightsaber, but the possibilities go far beyond that.
Slashdot Mirror
Gear Live posted a very favorable review of the SleepTracker watch.
You're thinking of Pete Miser's Scent of a Robot. The video was done by UV/Phactory.
I was hoping someone would mention the Hitchens article, because it's just so comically baseless to anyone who actually reads it critically. To quote the link, "[Hitchens] claims lies have been told, but can only find one statement that could even be inferred as untrue - and even that's a stretch."
It's a laughing shame that anyone still takes that guy seriously.
BTW, I only heard the term "blog" within the last 2 years, yet one of the quotes from the article said this guy ran weblog for 4 years.
Is the term "blog" newer then this guy's service?
I started my first weblog with Pyra's (now Google's) Blogger service in December 1999, and people were certainly calling them "blogs" by then. IIRC Blogger started in spring 1999, but I'm not sure how or if the birth of the Blogger service coincides with the general usage of the term "blog".
Everybody's arguing about how VCD is not a new format, but nobody seems to know how old it actually is. Some think it actually came out around the same time as DVD. The fellow who wrote the article thinks it's a new format. One fellow isn't sure, but thinks it might be even older, but isn't quite sure. Egh. Apparently I'm the first who actually bothered to Google it. VCD is fifteen years old. It was created in 1987. Now, was that so difficult? And as a matter of trivia, the compact disc was originally invented with video in mind.
While my pessimistic overgeneralizing side (e.g. the irritating side) would like to agree with the statement that, "in any dispute over domains it's the money that wins," my rational and much more pleasant side forces to mention a counterexample: The recent court victory of the World Wildlife Fund (a nonprofit), over the World Wrestling Federation (extremely profitable) in a domain name suit concerning the letters "WWF." While I'm much too lazy to provide any relevant URLs, I'm sure you can all find them yourselves.
A method by which the complete works of the author William Shakespeare ("Works") may be reproduced using only simians ("Monkeys"), typewriters ("Typewriters"), and an infinite amount of time ("Time").
The method for reproducing the Works can be summarized as follows. The physical components required for reproducing the Works are Monkeys and Typewriters. A certain number of Monkeys is introduced into the process. This number shall be equal to infinity. An equal number of Typewriters are then introduced into the process. Thus, the process contains an infinitude of both Monkeys and Typewriters. Given these components, the process shall continue for a certain amount of Time. This amount of Time shall equal infinity. At the end of this Time, the Works will have been reproduced.
An exhaustive search for previous art was done by a team of lawyers ("Babboons"), and it was found that no previous process has been demonstrated that successfully reproduced the Works using only Monkeys and Typewriters.
A person who is both blind and deaf/mute still communicates using sign language. A computer set up in this fashion could aid a blind deaf person just as well as a seeing deaf person, as blind people are no less intelligent than seeing ones, and know how to stand in front of a camera. And as long as they're facing the camera, the software will interpret their gestures just the same as it would a seeing person, and translate accordingly. I'm not saying that this could be used to allow disabled persons to play Quake or use CAD software, but using something like this to simply translate the words of a non-speaking person so that their voice can be heard would be an invaluable tool.
The real breakthrough here could be for the disabled. A system like this could allow deaf and mute people to communicate with the computer using American Sign Language, wearing brightly colored gloves. The coding would be a lot more difficult, but this sort of thing is definitely possible. Of course, many deaf and mute people can just use the keyboard and mouse, but those who are also blind or disabled in another way (lacking the finer coordination needed to use a regular keyboard, perhaps, due to a mental disability) could benefit greatly from this technology. With a few more advances in speech recognition, computers could soon be used as translators between speaking people and non-speaking ones. Yeah, the technology makes it neat to swing a virtual lightsaber, but the possibilities go far beyond that.