See.... I was right all along... Intelligent Design is the most believable theory, we just don't, ummm, have the key to the DNA. God doesn't seem to be answering calls... but his receptionist has the most lovely voice.
Yeah, no not useful for FPS games... yet. This is the bleeding edge kind of stuff, and probably not worth it unless people who are interesting in the novelty value alone, but removing hands as the main interface for computers is inevitable. I guess it just depends on the timeframe, I doubt anything amazing will come for a while, but i guess this is a "watch this space area". I just hope I'm able to keep up with whatever FPS games are out in 20 years when neural interfaces become mainstream.
Agreed. And besides, before fundamentalist islamic terrorists can use robots, they'd have to weigh the pros and cons. One definite con from a delusional religious perspective is that by using a robot instead of a martyr, you're denying someone of forty odd virgins. To us that's funny, but remember, some people actually believe this crap....
I thought the comment would be entirely laughable... but now I'm actually wondering if the islamic terrorits will have a special council meeting to discuss this.
What's really stupid about this is that Library of Congress, or at least a component within them, are seen to be a champion for open formats: http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/intro/intro.shtml/ (that's a Library of Congress site). They've got a $3 million dollar deal, but at the cost of a lot of credability in the archival community.
replicate the uber-badass laptop.... Is that illegal? Hell no. I'm not for it, but yes, if you replicate anything with patents on it with out paying the patent holders, yess, it's illegal. Bread, as far as I'm aware, doesn't have any patents on it, but maybe some of the more interesting designs do. Complex computer chips definitely do.
If however it cost zero to replicate items, I'm not sure what would happen to our economy - how would a small group police and prohibit something which was, at the end of the day, benefiting everyone. Someone has to pay for people to "create" new items and engineer them and we'd have some form of renumeration in place to do so.
I guess the only conclusion I'm drawing out of all this is that having replicators in our society as it currently stands would be the start of anarchy. Heh, well kinda;P
Actually, I'd disagree - if this attitude is taken, what then stops the software from using a simple XOR encryption? Good encryption works on transparency of the algorithm and security in the private key. It seems sensible that any creator of this hardware should trust their software by releasing the source code for inspection.
And pay for real developers... those thousand monkeys which made this were actually tasked with creating the next season for Firefly.
Good to see I was beaten to the punch on this joke. If they're serious about catching attention then why not jump on this bandwagon - Marvel might even find it funny and go for it. Personally I like "Hulkenator", heh.
Maybe they're thinking of making next generation guided bombs which fly like birds. And then we can finally use spinoff technology to create quidditch.
But that's the point of defending the creature which the Iranian government has become: it was a relatively normal government to begin with, but thanks to political stuff ups going back to the 1930's, the western world has created a monster. So even though "back home" our governments haven't reached the depths of the Iranian government, we've indirectly done it to the people in Iran through the creation of their government.
And think about this: when Iran was becoming to hard to control, it was the USA who gave Sudam Hussein the chemical weapons which we knew he was likely to use on Iran. Again: indirectly, using proxies and/or plain ignorance, we've (the western world) have done some pretty bad things. Until we realise that, countries like Iran will always be regions which hate and despise us.
All that being said, any hand of friendship has to go both ways between the Western World and Iran: whilst we have to be willing to admit how badly we stuffed up, they've also got to stop training children to be suicide bombers and also acknowledge that Israel is here to stay. We can't for a second demand that they become "moderate" overnight, but through an attitude of cooperation which may go on for decades, we may heal this big rift. One other thing: we need to start teaching children the extent to which governments have meddled in, and stuffed up, each others governments. We need to be better global citizens all, starting right now and extending into future generations.
I think this is kinda applicable here... and kinda funny:
For nearly ten hours the lift capsule had skimmed down the tower linking Supra-Brazil asteroid with the Govcentral state after which it was named, a smooth, silent ride. The only clue to how fast the lift capsules travelled (three thousand kilometres per hour) would come when they passed each other. But as they clung to rails on the exterior of the tower, and the only windows gave a direct view outward, such events remained out of sight to their passengers. Deliberately so; watching another capsule hurtling towards you at a combined speed of six thousand kilometres per hour was considered an absolute psychological no-go zone by the tower operators.
Have a read of some Peter Hamilton books... they're pretty awesome and occaisionally have some nice glimpses into what some technological advances will mean for us
I think the US wouldn't attack because of it's current footing.... but I'm not so sure about Israel. They've made hints that they're not prepared to let Iran get nuclear armaments. Ho hum... you can say one thing about the cold war, it kept wars down for a while as everyone sweated out a nuclear World War 3. At the moment it feels like the world is getting a little more crazy every day and that people are turning up the speed dial.
It would be nice if Russia and the USA could once again get into a cold war mode and slow down or put a lid on all these mini conflicts going on around the globe. Only this time it would be nice if they could agree to actually be close, secret friends. Then one day we'd find this out - it would be like finding out that Coke and Pepsi are made by the one company, and we'd be all, "Oh Snap";-)
Run Anywhere!!! Dear gods, what is this awful language Java which runs both on a hackers computer and also a government server.... Ban it, ban it now!!! Meh
You sound like my annoying lawyer friend. Yes, it isn't fair use under the current law, but maybe we need to update this. I've often heard the phrase, "If justice and law coincide, the what a happy day, but for the other 99% of the time..." It's my opinion that currently law has been taken far out of control of average people and corporations have been given far too much power to give us fear. As Benjiman Franklin put it, "A little revolution is a good thing". My thoughts exactly - all these small slights against us should hopefully make us one day wake up and protest this crap.
Well, the saying wasn't, but I guess it is now... I do feel sorry for Bush sometimes, many of the "Bushisms" are probably due to mild dyslexia. I only say this because it happens to me occasionally... that and inventing words occasionally. Like the time when I was after that funny kitchen implement which kind of strains and is a bit like a laddle... I asked, "Honey, where's the stradle?" She thought it was such a good word it should be kept around... so we dyslexians... we keep that ol' language thing moving... but maybe a bit fast.
Great, we've managed to replicate yet another crappy input device which is still many levels below direct neural interfacing. Seriously, we're almost 2010... c'mon guys, I'm not lashing out until the Logitech (TM) Direct Neural (TM) connection hits the shelves. And cerebral subprocessors... I mean, I'm still trying to do maths with my woefully inadequate brain - and why can't I use Google by thinking about it??
People from 20 years in the future will laugh at us for our crappy IO devices. Still, they'll all be wearing badly done external implants. Now the people of 100 years in the future with internal bio-processor implants, I'm really jealous of.
I'd have to agree - I'm a Java developer so if I was doing the solution, I'm sure I could whip up something cool with Lucene or whatever. But... in terms of long term maintanance costs, why develop anything yourself if the problem is already solved. And on the point of cool: good IT systems aren't cool... they do a job and do it well... maybe this is the first project where you find a "cool" solution is just not justifiable. I'm sure the Google appliance would let you put some quite extensive customizations on top of their API... well, that's been my experience with other Google products/services (Google Web Toolkit or Google Maps). Still, I've also found that some of the "nice to have" API's are kept out of reach with some things - I was trying to put a listener on a custom tile image in a map application and suddenly came up against a the barrier of "oh-boy-we'll-let-you-play-but-don't-dare-touch-that" sure came to mind.
I guess the only way forward is to scope your requirements well - and I'll bet half of the "must haves" aren't really that important. After that, some research on each of the possible solutions would be good and the cost to implement/maintain them. If you've got programming expertise in house, it may be tempting to use them as a no brainer, but it is worth finding out their cost to implement a good solution (one with maintenance and documentation factored in... basically, whatever amount of time they say it will take to code, times 4).
Well, that would be a start to getting Firefly back on television. Of course, if it takes till 2100, we'll need life rejuvenation techniques to get the actors back to the same age as when they left off to ensure good continuity of the show.
Oh yeah, and I guess if we're watching it in 2100, we'll probably want to be younger ourselves too so we can enjoy it. I'd personally hate to be 120 when trying to watch a new season of Firefly.
Fossil fuels are the leftover oils from decaying plant and animal matter which hasn't been returned to the regular carbon cycle. To my knowledge, there is no geological process which can create even a single molecule of oil. There's a reason why Carbon chemistry is called the chemistry of life.
So... when life first started on earth, there were no oil reserves or coal deposits, they all came from millions and millions of plants and animals dying and getting trapped under the earth. Kind of makes you feel small and insignificant to think how much effort created these fuels under the ground.
I'm not saying it's a good thing to be changing the earth so much by putting all these carbon reserves back in the atmosphere, especially in such a small time frame, but it's worth remembering where the carbon originally came from.
I feel your pain dude... I think the problem with securing a system is that it's very similar to code performance optimization without any real indicator as to what isn't performing. Basically, you've got your regular set of security principals (removing uneeded processes, closing ports, regular patching etc) and then a whole host of "super secure" stuff which, at the end of the day, if you've got people who're that smart attacking you, you're probably already screwed anyway - or they'll get in anyway since Larry in Marketing has "Larry" as his password. The path of least resistance is always the rule here, and if you haven't kept the people factor on board then hackers would probably go for that option.
The problem with "133t" security experts, or even just condescending security experts, is that a big part about staying on the top is bashing other peoples egos. In their minds, they know the perfect solution: A computer with no network cable which isn't accessible by users. At some point, everyone has to take on board the fact that plugging a computer into the Internet is a risk. It's the rule of having 6 billion people on earth (nicely identified by Homer): "No matter how good you are at something, there's always a million people better then you".
Finally, I totally agree with you regarding the role of security "experts" - it's the job of security people to try make existing processes more secure, and only change the way people work as a last resort (due to things like inherent flaws in a protocol, like FTP). They shouldn't be stopping any sort of valid business function. It's about compromises, not absolutes.
And the average cpu uses a LOT more juice. So does the average video card. I dunno - I would have thought that with things like speed stepping, CPU's are much more efficient at that power consumption. Also, for an average or low end machine I would have thought power consumption is flooring: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article313-page1.html
It's also hard to measure performance/energy now due to MHz taking more of a backseat, but I would say that my dual core laptop with a GeForce Go 7900 running on 130 watt power supply would have much more efficiency then amount of grunt needed to compete with it from the year 2000 (I'm guessing you'd need some sort of quad core Xeon server beast with a ridiculous high end graphics card).
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See.... I was right all along... Intelligent Design is the most believable theory, we just don't, ummm, have the key to the DNA. God doesn't seem to be answering calls... but his receptionist has the most lovely voice.
Yeah, no not useful for FPS games... yet. This is the bleeding edge kind of stuff, and probably not worth it unless people who are interesting in the novelty value alone, but removing hands as the main interface for computers is inevitable. I guess it just depends on the timeframe, I doubt anything amazing will come for a while, but i guess this is a "watch this space area". I just hope I'm able to keep up with whatever FPS games are out in 20 years when neural interfaces become mainstream.
Agreed. And besides, before fundamentalist islamic terrorists can use robots, they'd have to weigh the pros and cons. One definite con from a delusional religious perspective is that by using a robot instead of a martyr, you're denying someone of forty odd virgins. To us that's funny, but remember, some people actually believe this crap....
I thought the comment would be entirely laughable... but now I'm actually wondering if the islamic terrorits will have a special council meeting to discuss this.
What a strange world.
What's really stupid about this is that Library of Congress, or at least a component within them, are seen to be a champion for open formats: http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/intro/intro.shtml/ (that's a Library of Congress site). They've got a $3 million dollar deal, but at the cost of a lot of credability in the archival community.
Warning: This Yo-Yo could potentially creating an annoying habit of showing your friends every little trick you've 'almost' learned.
Actually, I'd disagree - if this attitude is taken, what then stops the software from using a simple XOR encryption? Good encryption works on transparency of the algorithm and security in the private key. It seems sensible that any creator of this hardware should trust their software by releasing the source code for inspection.
And pay for real developers... those thousand monkeys which made this were actually tasked with creating the next season for Firefly.
But these guys are different - they have a magic eightball made of unobtainium. How could we argue with that?
Good to see I was beaten to the punch on this joke. If they're serious about catching attention then why not jump on this bandwagon - Marvel might even find it funny and go for it. Personally I like "Hulkenator", heh.
Maybe they're thinking of making next generation guided bombs which fly like birds. And then we can finally use spinoff technology to create quidditch.
But that's the point of defending the creature which the Iranian government has become: it was a relatively normal government to begin with, but thanks to political stuff ups going back to the 1930's, the western world has created a monster. So even though "back home" our governments haven't reached the depths of the Iranian government, we've indirectly done it to the people in Iran through the creation of their government.
And think about this: when Iran was becoming to hard to control, it was the USA who gave Sudam Hussein the chemical weapons which we knew he was likely to use on Iran. Again: indirectly, using proxies and/or plain ignorance, we've (the western world) have done some pretty bad things. Until we realise that, countries like Iran will always be regions which hate and despise us.
All that being said, any hand of friendship has to go both ways between the Western World and Iran: whilst we have to be willing to admit how badly we stuffed up, they've also got to stop training children to be suicide bombers and also acknowledge that Israel is here to stay. We can't for a second demand that they become "moderate" overnight, but through an attitude of cooperation which may go on for decades, we may heal this big rift. One other thing: we need to start teaching children the extent to which governments have meddled in, and stuffed up, each others governments. We need to be better global citizens all, starting right now and extending into future generations.
I think this is kinda applicable here... and kinda funny:
Have a read of some Peter Hamilton books... they're pretty awesome and occaisionally have some nice glimpses into what some technological advances will mean for us
I think the US wouldn't attack because of it's current footing.... but I'm not so sure about Israel. They've made hints that they're not prepared to let Iran get nuclear armaments. Ho hum... you can say one thing about the cold war, it kept wars down for a while as everyone sweated out a nuclear World War 3. At the moment it feels like the world is getting a little more crazy every day and that people are turning up the speed dial.
;-)
It would be nice if Russia and the USA could once again get into a cold war mode and slow down or put a lid on all these mini conflicts going on around the globe. Only this time it would be nice if they could agree to actually be close, secret friends. Then one day we'd find this out - it would be like finding out that Coke and Pepsi are made by the one company, and we'd be all, "Oh Snap"
Run Anywhere!!! Dear gods, what is this awful language Java which runs both on a hackers computer and also a government server.... Ban it, ban it now!!! Meh
You sound like my annoying lawyer friend. Yes, it isn't fair use under the current law, but maybe we need to update this. I've often heard the phrase, "If justice and law coincide, the what a happy day, but for the other 99% of the time..." It's my opinion that currently law has been taken far out of control of average people and corporations have been given far too much power to give us fear. As Benjiman Franklin put it, "A little revolution is a good thing". My thoughts exactly - all these small slights against us should hopefully make us one day wake up and protest this crap.
Well, the saying wasn't, but I guess it is now... I do feel sorry for Bush sometimes, many of the "Bushisms" are probably due to mild dyslexia. I only say this because it happens to me occasionally... that and inventing words occasionally. Like the time when I was after that funny kitchen implement which kind of strains and is a bit like a laddle... I asked, "Honey, where's the stradle?" She thought it was such a good word it should be kept around... so we dyslexians... we keep that ol' language thing moving... but maybe a bit fast.
what's sad is that this was discovered in the attempt to create a more life like toupe;P
Great, we've managed to replicate yet another crappy input device which is still many levels below direct neural interfacing. Seriously, we're almost 2010... c'mon guys, I'm not lashing out until the Logitech (TM) Direct Neural (TM) connection hits the shelves. And cerebral subprocessors... I mean, I'm still trying to do maths with my woefully inadequate brain - and why can't I use Google by thinking about it??
People from 20 years in the future will laugh at us for our crappy IO devices. Still, they'll all be wearing badly done external implants. Now the people of 100 years in the future with internal bio-processor implants, I'm really jealous of.
Been there. Done that. And doing it again, and again and again. Oh boy;P
I'd have to agree - I'm a Java developer so if I was doing the solution, I'm sure I could whip up something cool with Lucene or whatever. But... in terms of long term maintanance costs, why develop anything yourself if the problem is already solved. And on the point of cool: good IT systems aren't cool... they do a job and do it well... maybe this is the first project where you find a "cool" solution is just not justifiable. I'm sure the Google appliance would let you put some quite extensive customizations on top of their API... well, that's been my experience with other Google products/services (Google Web Toolkit or Google Maps). Still, I've also found that some of the "nice to have" API's are kept out of reach with some things - I was trying to put a listener on a custom tile image in a map application and suddenly came up against a the barrier of "oh-boy-we'll-let-you-play-but-don't-dare-touch-that" sure came to mind. I guess the only way forward is to scope your requirements well - and I'll bet half of the "must haves" aren't really that important. After that, some research on each of the possible solutions would be good and the cost to implement/maintain them. If you've got programming expertise in house, it may be tempting to use them as a no brainer, but it is worth finding out their cost to implement a good solution (one with maintenance and documentation factored in... basically, whatever amount of time they say it will take to code, times 4).
Well, that would be a start to getting Firefly back on television. Of course, if it takes till 2100, we'll need life rejuvenation techniques to get the actors back to the same age as when they left off to ensure good continuity of the show.
Oh yeah, and I guess if we're watching it in 2100, we'll probably want to be younger ourselves too so we can enjoy it. I'd personally hate to be 120 when trying to watch a new season of Firefly.
Fossil fuels are the leftover oils from decaying plant and animal matter which hasn't been returned to the regular carbon cycle. To my knowledge, there is no geological process which can create even a single molecule of oil. There's a reason why Carbon chemistry is called the chemistry of life. So... when life first started on earth, there were no oil reserves or coal deposits, they all came from millions and millions of plants and animals dying and getting trapped under the earth. Kind of makes you feel small and insignificant to think how much effort created these fuels under the ground. I'm not saying it's a good thing to be changing the earth so much by putting all these carbon reserves back in the atmosphere, especially in such a small time frame, but it's worth remembering where the carbon originally came from.
I feel your pain dude... I think the problem with securing a system is that it's very similar to code performance optimization without any real indicator as to what isn't performing. Basically, you've got your regular set of security principals (removing uneeded processes, closing ports, regular patching etc) and then a whole host of "super secure" stuff which, at the end of the day, if you've got people who're that smart attacking you, you're probably already screwed anyway - or they'll get in anyway since Larry in Marketing has "Larry" as his password. The path of least resistance is always the rule here, and if you haven't kept the people factor on board then hackers would probably go for that option.
The problem with "133t" security experts, or even just condescending security experts, is that a big part about staying on the top is bashing other peoples egos. In their minds, they know the perfect solution: A computer with no network cable which isn't accessible by users. At some point, everyone has to take on board the fact that plugging a computer into the Internet is a risk. It's the rule of having 6 billion people on earth (nicely identified by Homer): "No matter how good you are at something, there's always a million people better then you".
Finally, I totally agree with you regarding the role of security "experts" - it's the job of security people to try make existing processes more secure, and only change the way people work as a last resort (due to things like inherent flaws in a protocol, like FTP). They shouldn't be stopping any sort of valid business function. It's about compromises, not absolutes.
It's also hard to measure performance/energy now due to MHz taking more of a backseat, but I would say that my dual core laptop with a GeForce Go 7900 running on 130 watt power supply would have much more efficiency then amount of grunt needed to compete with it from the year 2000 (I'm guessing you'd need some sort of quad core Xeon server beast with a ridiculous high end graphics card).