I was doing my final year AI project, and had read about the role the cerebellum plays in human movement and physical sensation. I tried to create a program that would abstract the physical nature of a small Lego robot such that a neural network trained to avoid obstacles in a computer simulation could be transferred into the robot, and function without further training.
The implementation was, I admit, less than brilliant. But hearing others think along the same lines reassures me a little that the concept wasn't quite as nutty as I had feared.
If any HR fucktards get a hold of this notion, they will start to poke into the gaming habits of their employees to try and gauge how productive they are. Were you overheard mentioning that you liked Civilization IV? You need more tasks! We can't have people going home at the end of a 10 hour work day with enough energy to do anything for themselves! That would be horrific!
âoeThe Sun does not seem like the perfect star for a system where life might arise. Although it is hard to argue with the Sunâ(TM)s âsuccessâ(TM) as it so far is the only star known to host a planet with life, our studies indicate that the ideal stars to support planets suitable for life for tens of billions of years may be a smaller slower burning âorange dwarfâ(TM) with a longer lifetime than the Sun â about 20-40 billion years. These stars, also called K stars, are stable stars with a habitable zone that remains in the same place for tens of billions of years. They are 10 times more numerous than the Sun, and may provide the best potential habitat for life in the long runâ. He continues: âoeOn the more speculative side we have also found indications that planets like Earth are also not necessarily the best suited for life to thrive. Planets two to three times more massive than the Earth, with a higher gravity, can retain the atmosphere better. They may have a larger liquid iron core giving a stronger magnetic field that protects against the early onslaught of cosmic rays. Furthermore, a larger planet cools more slowly and maintains its magnetic protection. This kind of planet may be more likely to harbour life. I would not trade though â you canâ(TM)t argue with successâ.
Maybe nobody has visited us because, from interstellar distances, Earth doesn't look like a place that could harbour life?
I perhaps overstated; I don't in any way oppose wind/solar power - in fact they are great for powering homes because they scale down fairly well, and you can have on site generation and eliminate losses due to transmission.
But the energy problem isn't about whether or not people in the richest countries in the world will have enough electricity to run their TVs and games consoles. Its about whether or not there will be enough energy inputted into agriculture to feed the world; we have already seen last year what spiking energy costs can do to the poor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%932008_world_food_price_crisis
Yup. I consider myself an environmentalist, but I don't go near most environmental groups because they oppose nuclear power, which is absolutely vital for a society after fossil fuels. Wind turbines and organic farming aren't going to sustain human society globally, regardless of them giving warm fuzzies to certain people in the west.
Because there is a cost in user time/annoyance to switching software. So long as the benefits Opera offers over Firefox give less of a return than the cost of switching, people won't do it.
Don't underestimate the value of a familiar user interface to someone who doesn't really give a crap about browser wars.
How can someone post such a comment on SLASHDOT of all places? I am running the latest version of Firefox on a MacBook Pro 2.5Ghz dual core with 2 gigs of RAM, and I constantly get beachballed if I have the temerity to click on more than one thing in the span of ten seconds.
This site has slowed down for me over the years, despite my computers getting faster.
First is bullshit. Americans are, by objective testing, fatter and stupider than Europeans. Second is hypocritical given your posts. Third is splitting a retarded hair.
But apparently, I'm the troll, for pointing out how idiotic your mindless nationalism is. Oh well.
I think its very telling how random Americans with nothing to do with high energy physics are responding with "OMG teh euros suxors!!! 5 weeks holiday a year LOL! USA FTW!!!11" whilst people actually working in the top US high energy physics lab are pointing out how these kinds of delays are inevitable with something like the LHC and are hopeful about it coming online.
You are aware, are you not, that CERN already runs particle accelerators?
It never ceases to amaze me that absolute, unwavering certainty Americans have that they are better than everyone else at everything. You are not. If you doubt me, then make the more realistic comparison of the LHC to the SSC.
It tickles me no end Americans thinking they are beating the Europeans at particle physics. The Tevatron is not comparable to the LHC, the SSC would have been the equivalent - and that turned into a far greater waste of money than the LHC did. To be honest, it sounds like sour grapes to me.
Yeah, because the American attempt to create a collider on this scale turned out really well, didn't it? I'm sure you might want to bring up the Apollo programme next; I will have to concede though, that the Saturn V really was a remarkable piece of German engineering.
Americans thinking they are better than everyone else used to annoy me, now it just seems pathetic.
Its a myth, there is no shortage of good people in the UK. There is a shortage of good people who will work for half what they are worth, put in long hours, and take whatever shit their MBA twat of a boss chooses to throw at them. The IT industry just constantly bugs the government to train more IT people, just so they can lower the cost of them.
This is why I got out. I have skills in both C and databases, but couldn't find a decent job. Often, it was because rather than looking for someone with skills in C they looked for someone with X years of experience in the specific IDE they used at their company, or rather than looking for someone with database skills they wanted someone who had been working on some shit like Filemaker for 10 years.
Other times though, it was the hilarious pay packages offered. It made more sense to get an easier, almost equally paid job and code my own projects in my greater amount of spare time.
An inflated sense of entitlement isn't something you can blame on schools, especially not using conservative mythology about how 'libruls' run eduction.
A sense of entitlement is stoked by advertising. Because you're worth it etc. Its stoked by the old 'American dream' lie - that just by putting in hard work you can make it (and thus by extension, anyone who struggles has noone else to blame, making the US a brutally unsympathetic society).
This girl was sold a lie; that she could join the rich and powerful, if only she played along with their game (and voted for millionaires to have tax cuts, of course). She is now being hit with a harsh dose of reality, and seems to think a simple court case will make that reality go away. It will not.
What bugged me most about the loudness war was the overt contempt it showed for listeners. Those behind it clearly considered people who bought records as little more than Pavlov's dogs, who could be conditioned to respond predictably to a simple sensory stimulus (loud music). Dynamic range compression is, to me, a microcosm of pretty much everything that is rotten about western capitalism.
Agreed. Capitalism might seem like beautiful mathematical perfection to anybody who hasn't been under its heel 50 hours a week. Libertarianism rarely survives ones first graduate job.
And for the record, fuck yes I am anti-business. Corporations are, from my personal experience, a completely malignant form of social and economic organisation. I have found them to be places that stifle creativity, individuality, hope and happiness.
Ah, the struggling musician chestnut. Do you know what? Musicians should struggle, because teachers, nurses, scientists, construction workers, and every other fucker in the economy has to struggle. Musicians, for a brief period of modern history, were able to make income beyond that they were given for their performances. That era is coming to an end, and there is no a priori reason why it should not.
It isn't at all a given that expensive production begets quality in music, movies or even computer games. Content production is not a vital industry in the way energy or food production is, and does not have any 'right' to continue to exist at all. Music and other forms of entertainment will go on without these things being monetized.
I have very good reading comprehension. I read what you said, and comprehended exactly what sort of person you are. Reading between the lines is not a sign of poor comprehension, you stuck up cunt. Your cowardly scapegoating of the weakest people in society is the core of what is wrong with the UK. You are your ilk are providing the government with the impetus to turn Britain into a police state, just to satisfy your warped, pathetic, and hypocritical sense of moral order.
The fact you assume you can tell who is and isn't on benefits based on their appearance speaks to your arrogance, your insular upbringing, and your stupidity.
That is your definition of a problem family. Under this kind of legislation, the definition of a problem family will most likely rest entirely at the discretion of petty officials such as magistrates. Such people have no qualms about using the force of the law to push their own personal opinions, tastes, and morals on others.
Slashdot Mirror
To an extent, anyway.
I was doing my final year AI project, and had read about the role the cerebellum plays in human movement and physical sensation. I tried to create a program that would abstract the physical nature of a small Lego robot such that a neural network trained to avoid obstacles in a computer simulation could be transferred into the robot, and function without further training.
The implementation was, I admit, less than brilliant. But hearing others think along the same lines reassures me a little that the concept wasn't quite as nutty as I had feared.
If any HR fucktards get a hold of this notion, they will start to poke into the gaming habits of their employees to try and gauge how productive they are. Were you overheard mentioning that you liked Civilization IV? You need more tasks! We can't have people going home at the end of a 10 hour work day with enough energy to do anything for themselves! That would be horrific!
From TFA:
Maybe nobody has visited us because, from interstellar distances, Earth doesn't look like a place that could harbour life?
I perhaps overstated; I don't in any way oppose wind/solar power - in fact they are great for powering homes because they scale down fairly well, and you can have on site generation and eliminate losses due to transmission.
But the energy problem isn't about whether or not people in the richest countries in the world will have enough electricity to run their TVs and games consoles. Its about whether or not there will be enough energy inputted into agriculture to feed the world; we have already seen last year what spiking energy costs can do to the poor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%932008_world_food_price_crisis
Yup. I consider myself an environmentalist, but I don't go near most environmental groups because they oppose nuclear power, which is absolutely vital for a society after fossil fuels. Wind turbines and organic farming aren't going to sustain human society globally, regardless of them giving warm fuzzies to certain people in the west.
Because there is a cost in user time/annoyance to switching software. So long as the benefits Opera offers over Firefox give less of a return than the cost of switching, people won't do it.
Don't underestimate the value of a familiar user interface to someone who doesn't really give a crap about browser wars.
Some people use BitTorrent. Most torrent tracker sites don't overload the javascript, and its free.
How can someone post such a comment on SLASHDOT of all places? I am running the latest version of Firefox on a MacBook Pro 2.5Ghz dual core with 2 gigs of RAM, and I constantly get beachballed if I have the temerity to click on more than one thing in the span of ten seconds.
This site has slowed down for me over the years, despite my computers getting faster.
First is bullshit. Americans are, by objective testing, fatter and stupider than Europeans. Second is hypocritical given your posts. Third is splitting a retarded hair.
But apparently, I'm the troll, for pointing out how idiotic your mindless nationalism is. Oh well.
I think its very telling how random Americans with nothing to do with high energy physics are responding with "OMG teh euros suxors!!! 5 weeks holiday a year LOL! USA FTW!!!11" whilst people actually working in the top US high energy physics lab are pointing out how these kinds of delays are inevitable with something like the LHC and are hopeful about it coming online.
Please let it be so. I want to see the faces on the conspiracy nuts the day after when NOTHING HAPPENS.
You are aware, are you not, that CERN already runs particle accelerators?
It never ceases to amaze me that absolute, unwavering certainty Americans have that they are better than everyone else at everything. You are not. If you doubt me, then make the more realistic comparison of the LHC to the SSC.
It tickles me no end Americans thinking they are beating the Europeans at particle physics. The Tevatron is not comparable to the LHC, the SSC would have been the equivalent - and that turned into a far greater waste of money than the LHC did. To be honest, it sounds like sour grapes to me.
Got to love the morons who equate the construction of the LHC to splicing together a couple of bits of CAT5...
Yeah, because the American attempt to create a collider on this scale turned out really well, didn't it? I'm sure you might want to bring up the Apollo programme next; I will have to concede though, that the Saturn V really was a remarkable piece of German engineering.
Americans thinking they are better than everyone else used to annoy me, now it just seems pathetic.
Its a myth, there is no shortage of good people in the UK. There is a shortage of good people who will work for half what they are worth, put in long hours, and take whatever shit their MBA twat of a boss chooses to throw at them. The IT industry just constantly bugs the government to train more IT people, just so they can lower the cost of them.
This is why I got out. I have skills in both C and databases, but couldn't find a decent job. Often, it was because rather than looking for someone with skills in C they looked for someone with X years of experience in the specific IDE they used at their company, or rather than looking for someone with database skills they wanted someone who had been working on some shit like Filemaker for 10 years.
Other times though, it was the hilarious pay packages offered. It made more sense to get an easier, almost equally paid job and code my own projects in my greater amount of spare time.
An inflated sense of entitlement isn't something you can blame on schools, especially not using conservative mythology about how 'libruls' run eduction.
A sense of entitlement is stoked by advertising. Because you're worth it etc. Its stoked by the old 'American dream' lie - that just by putting in hard work you can make it (and thus by extension, anyone who struggles has noone else to blame, making the US a brutally unsympathetic society).
This girl was sold a lie; that she could join the rich and powerful, if only she played along with their game (and voted for millionaires to have tax cuts, of course). She is now being hit with a harsh dose of reality, and seems to think a simple court case will make that reality go away. It will not.
What bugged me most about the loudness war was the overt contempt it showed for listeners. Those behind it clearly considered people who bought records as little more than Pavlov's dogs, who could be conditioned to respond predictably to a simple sensory stimulus (loud music). Dynamic range compression is, to me, a microcosm of pretty much everything that is rotten about western capitalism.
Really? Remind me again where the government dumped hundreds of billions of pounds recently? The biggest spongers in this country wear suits.
Agreed. Capitalism might seem like beautiful mathematical perfection to anybody who hasn't been under its heel 50 hours a week. Libertarianism rarely survives ones first graduate job.
And for the record, fuck yes I am anti-business. Corporations are, from my personal experience, a completely malignant form of social and economic organisation. I have found them to be places that stifle creativity, individuality, hope and happiness.
Ah, the struggling musician chestnut. Do you know what? Musicians should struggle, because teachers, nurses, scientists, construction workers, and every other fucker in the economy has to struggle. Musicians, for a brief period of modern history, were able to make income beyond that they were given for their performances. That era is coming to an end, and there is no a priori reason why it should not.
It isn't at all a given that expensive production begets quality in music, movies or even computer games. Content production is not a vital industry in the way energy or food production is, and does not have any 'right' to continue to exist at all. Music and other forms of entertainment will go on without these things being monetized.
I have very good reading comprehension. I read what you said, and comprehended exactly what sort of person you are. Reading between the lines is not a sign of poor comprehension, you stuck up cunt. Your cowardly scapegoating of the weakest people in society is the core of what is wrong with the UK. You are your ilk are providing the government with the impetus to turn Britain into a police state, just to satisfy your warped, pathetic, and hypocritical sense of moral order.
The fact you assume you can tell who is and isn't on benefits based on their appearance speaks to your arrogance, your insular upbringing, and your stupidity.
That is your definition of a problem family. Under this kind of legislation, the definition of a problem family will most likely rest entirely at the discretion of petty officials such as magistrates. Such people have no qualms about using the force of the law to push their own personal opinions, tastes, and morals on others.