Posts by OrsonX
442 posts • joined Monday 27th August 2007 15:52 GMT
To All The Naysayers
FIRSTLY: The Turing test. The point is. If you can't tell the difference, then there is no difference. Perhaps the machine isn't sentient, but then again, perhaps the questioner isn't either (he/she just thinks they are).
SECONDLY: Computer code can never be alive. DNA is just a code.
Does it [] mean that it's intelligent?
One clever script no.
Lots of clever scripts that learn and improve from their previous outputs...., that become better at giving correct outputs.
Complex behaviour can emerge from quite simple instructions. Once you have a threshold of "clever scripts" then very complex behaviour will emerge.
One day a script will reference itself in the behaviour and a sentient (juvenile) machine will be born.
We are all just self-referential complex machines. Nothing more.
AI@home (AI virus)
Perhaps we could have an AI@home project (like the folding at home one, or SETI). But instead all that is required is that you have a "neurone" program running on your PC that allows it to connect to every other "neurone" in the www brain. The brain would have have eyes (webcams) and ears (mics) to learn with, and a whole internet of knowledge at its disposal.....
Human brain: 86bn neurones (ref: Google 1st hit)
World (PC) population: 7 billion
Close enough!
The evil version of this brilliant plan is just to release the AI@home as a virus....
"Not any time soon"
I predict definitely within the next 50 years, most probably within the next 20.
Classroom control
Teacher: "copy page 10 and shut the f**k up"
20 min of peace (child reads text at least once)
Future Teacher: "copy page 10 and..."
10 seconds later (CMD-C/V)
Child: "done"
Child goes back throwing chairs etc.
Re: "acquiring a massive spin from the rifling"
I did go away and think about this some more:
Assuming bullet speed = 660ms
Barrel length = 20cm
Rifling = 1 rev every 10cm (10 rev every 1m)
1s bullet flight = 660m = 6660 revolutions
1 min = 6660 x 60s = ~400,000 rpm
Alfred, it would appear that your assertion is correct, and I would agree that that, in units of rpm that is "large". However, in terms of how many times the bullet rotates before leaving the gun, well that's just 2.
"acquiring a massive spin from the rifling"
I suspect (but don't actually know) that "massive" in this instance is incorrect. From recollection, rifling marks inside a gun barrel only introduce perhaps 2 revolutions over the barrel length. So for each barrel length distance travelled the bullet will only do 2 revolutions...., hardly "massive" spin.
what to have for tea?
What I really want is a crispy chilly beef..., but that's supposed to be for Friday's.
I need something to see me through the dark hours before "Monday-Tuesday" arrives.
@Boffin Steve
Sitting here in the UK I find the (not mentioned in article) USS Ponce to be a funny name, especially far a warship!
What does Boffin mean in the US?
What games do people want to play?
Sadly I am too tired these days to play driving games/shooting games, although I look forward to seeing how they look with a bazillion polygons, etc.
For me, I'm looking forward to CivVI*, a game you can play without moving, or being awake even!
*which I'll probably play on my next laptop!
"the most hardened atheist will pray to a god they don't believe in"
Dear Lord, please please please make the green lights on the flashy box thing come back on.
Ok, it's true.
Do me a Quaver
Folding screens will be a welcome revolution, but this is INSANE!
I have looked at LOADS of folding screen phone concepts, figuring out how to do it practically and usefully is quite challenging. BUT, do we really need to patent every possible way to do it? In fact why not do EXACTLY this, and patent every possible iteration of how to fold something?
BANANAS!
The ads don't work
But then I was going to buy SimCity after El Reg bombarded me with it.... perfectly targeted!
However, I was then bombarded with SimCity is broken articles....., which undid all the original brain washing. So no longer gonna purchase.
The ads do work (sometimes).
I withdraw my yawn
+1 to you Sir.
Yawn
Yay, lets re-build yesterdays crap technology, I mean why?!
Re: Samsung Suck at Software
Yup, I have a Note I, awesome phone, horrendous Samsung Software, all of it terrible! The S Memo and S Note software is the worst of all, they need to have one app with features of both of these combined. It is mind boggling that there are 2 in the first place?
re: no longer playing catch-up (?!)
er, Apple have been playing catch-up since the S3 and Note II.
Re: Source code
You're trollin' right?
Tomato Source Code = Final Approach + Ground Hog Day
Only an 11 yr old with no knowledge of what has come before would find this original.
The ONLY thing that would have improved it is if the movie had ended when the Army gal hit the big red "off" button at the end... instead we are insulted further with a Hollywood shmaltzy we all live happily ever after ending.
Barff!
CONTACT
I'm good to....
Why didn't it make the cut?
PLANET OF THE MONKEYS*
*(prehensile) tale.
Not apes!
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Yeah! Let's ruin it some more.
"800 million years to come up with a decent spaceship design."
What we need is a spaceship design committee.
Probably the first item on the agenda should be, what colour do we want the spaceship to be?
'optical tricks allow the wearer to view the display while focusing at any distance"
Is this possible?
I think these glasses will only work when the image (of whatever) just floats above whatever object I'm looking at, at whatever distance.
This would seem like a big ask optically.
I also do wonder what information I'd actually want displayed? Perhaps an audio version would be more useful? It would certainly by infinitely simpler to implement.
As for Steve Mann, I sure hope he's patented all the good stuff!
Prometheus
You saw it and you still want to buy it?!!
it's worse than that (he's dead Jim)
"can u ping it to me?"
Is (in our office) the new (ammoying as hell) busnessies way of saying
"can you email it to me?"
Posted in Apple files 'iWatch' patent application
Scotch Mist
Does Apple have a patent on it? I'm sure th USPO would happily grant it.
Re: @ShelLuser
A magnifying glass a mere 8cm across will focus sunlight and set a variety of things alights. So I'm pretty sure if Mythbusters had focused all their mirrors then the result would have been very different.
Plan A
I think MS are playing the long game on this one.
A slow start, but when the next Xbox comes out and all the systems are seamlessly integrated, then things might start to look pretty appealing.
The iToys have already lost their shine. If I was in the market for a new PC or Tablet then I'd be giving Surface some serious consideration.
Re: De-IOSasize Mountain Lion
Just done this, my solution, a fresh instal of Snow Leopard.
It just works.
It just doesn't feckin work (ML that is).
I wish I owned a shop
so I could arrange it EXACTLY like this.
pay for TV?
Big Bang is on constant loop on Channel 4....
....and even that's shit now.
"go fast enough & rip electrons"
Please (somebody) correct me if i'm wrong. But isn't c constant regardless of your own speed? Isnt that Physics 101? That is, if i'm travelling in my car towards you the speed of light from the headlamps is still c. The same must hold true at 0.99c in the MF. I believe light is red shifted not due to a celestial body moving rapidly away from us, but rather due to the expansion of the intervening space.
Re: Want to know how much I hate Windows 8?
So, how's the photo slideshow screensaver on your iMac?
[he says typing from his MBP, where it ain't working properly since ML]
"until we get out there and start exploring"
Seriously, why can't we just build a proper spaceship? Why are we mucking around with the useless ISS? The people who designed these things should have thought big from the get-go. I see we will shortly be sending men into space for a year long investigation into the effects of weightlessness, but why?!! When we build the spaceship it will have a friggin rotating bit (or at least it would have if I built it). Has nobody in NASA seen 2001 or read ANY science fiction? From the very first shuttle launch THIS is what we should have been building. It could have pod bays, an insane computer, the works!
If we put our minds to it we could build a spaceship now (or a powered habitat), like the bionic man, we have the technology! The only thing we can't do is propulsion, that IS a tricky one.
Vacuum Spheres (little ones)
Why not make spheres filled with nothing and then fill the airship with these?
C'mon, surely this is possible? And if not, why not!
Can a clever person calculate how buoyant a vacuum filled ping-pong ball would be (ignoring its inability to withstand the pressure)?
What? No silicon heaven?
But where do all the calculators go?
STAR TREK
and today's excuse for not being able to beam out of the dangerous situation is....
Just switched to Android (G.Note)....
....loving it, my only concern is, that even the most innocuous Apps want access to EVERYTHING!*
*messages, phone logs, contacts list, gallery, full internet access, ability to modify phone, etc., etc.
And no I'm not taking about a malware fart app., just look at some stock Google apps for example.
In this respect iOS is MUCH better!
@John T
Interesting reply, sounds like a nice set-up.
I should probably expand my musical horizons as I do tend to hear the same songs a lot!
10Gb, 5 days, ~2k songs
The only time I have to listen to music is on the commute. I am constantly deleting songs I don't like so I can have more of a chance of hearing my favourite ones, and yet it would still take me 5 days to listen to all my music.
You don't need the cloud when you only have 10Gb of music!
But my point is, why do people have so much music when listening to even a fraction of it is impractical?
Every Last Drop
We won't stop using gas/coal until we've used every last drop.
PERIOD.
I really don't see the point of using it more slowly.... if we intend on using it all in the end.
@Symon
I wish I could improve your IQ so that your read earlier post before spamming.
Re: Counselling?
+1
My optician has a test that tells me if I have disease X by looking at my eye. I asked him "is there a cure for disease X?"
Answer: no
Then I don't want to know!
Ignorance is bliss. Knowing I am pre-diposed to Parkinson's, etc. would drive me insane with worry.
"400 potentially damaging DNA variations"
OK
First thing to do on Monday, fix the inherent flaws.
Tuesday, give myself super-genes.
"100 IQ would change over time"
TRUE
But this would just mean that we get smarter faster.
"genetic anomalies are a key part of evolution by natural selection?"
Humans are now devolving as everybody who should have died at birth are now being kept alive and breeding.
The only way humans are going to improve (smarter/ fitter / more longevity, etc.) is through genetic engineering. What would really help is a huge database identifying all the thick / ill people, the first thing to do (at the most simplistic level) would be to eradicate these genes from our progeny.
If only we had such a data-base? If only we could target and modify any gene?
Oh, wait....
Re: GATTACA
ha, you beat me to it!
it would be funny if it wasn't true
GATACA
why not just sequence everybody at birth and get rid of people with an IQ of <100 and any genetic defect?
RASCAL
Americans do love their project acronyms.
