Posts by james 68 611 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Jul 2009
“Bunch together a group of people deliberately chosen for strong religious feelings, and you have a practical guarantee of dark morbidities expressed in crime, perversion, and insanity.” - H.P. Lovecraft
Kinda fits how topics go on these forums eh?
Surely any "superhuman AI" would by very definition be wildly smarter than the fleshy bods who designed the control interface - making the designing of said interface redundant as the AI would simply blow right through it.
I still say the best (and only real) defense is a fleshy human sat beside the plug that powers the bugger.
This whole rigmarole is a farce - on BOTH sides of the argument.
The spangly fashion accessory in question does not belong to the murderer, it belongs to the company he worked for.
Perhaps I‘m a tad jaded but does that not suggest that this whole thing could be cleared up by the actual owner asking for it to be unlocked?
Now I do fully understand that the FBI is trying to set a precedent for phones to be unlocked upon request but surely Apple could simply sidestep the whole deal by stating that they will unlock the bloody thing for it`s rightful owner and the FBI be damned.
Instead we get a media circus where Apple can get some free advertisement and claim to be all fluffy and unicorn fondely.
@Graham Marsden
Just offhand I would recon an ice shield is a bad idea.
A small projectile at very high speed might punch a hole through a thin hull on entry and exit, perhaps vaporising an area 10 to 20 times larger than its size, so an object roughly the size of a marble would leave entry and exit holes maybe basketball sized.
But hitting a thick surface like an ice shield would absorb much much more of its energy vaporising an area maybe 70 to 80 times its size and also creating a very large explosion from the resulting superheated steam rapidly expanding.
(these numbers are NOT scientific but are guestimates based on watching a nasa/boeing docu about firing hypersonic projectiles from a very big gun in a vacuum into various surfaces/compounds)
That really depends upon its rotational speed, if its slow then lifting off would be boned. However if it is fast then lifting off at or near the equator would be quite easy.
Mind you it would be a bugger to make a rocket of any viable kind capable of withstanding the 10G load of the planet + the atmospheric pressure on a 10G planet + the G load of accelerating to orbit.
Have you actually contacted these guys? http://www.ukra.org.uk/
Pretty sure that if they cant import the load you require that some of them could instead build an equivalent load to the same specs and dimensions. And if you cannot get an explosives licence (which might not even be needed - see here http://www.ukra.org.uk/legal) then all it would take is to ask one of the members who does have such a licence to join your merry group and store the materials.
Unfortunately there is a huge difference between the governments agreeing to be in the same room as him, and the governments actually listening to him.
What is much more likely is that they will send some low level peons to be in the same room as him for 20 minutes so that they can later say "Hey, look at us, we listened to ALL the viable concerns before steamrolling in a new surveillance society."
No harm whatsoever to China's economy as it happens, but plenty of harm to the foreign business. where do you think 99% of tech gear gets made for pennies? That would be China if you were wondering.
And where are those various companies going to go anyway? America? Europe? Russia maybe? All of which are currently using laws or have laws on the table that are just as bad if not worse than China, but will also cost a hell of a lot more in wages and taxes.
Fact of the matter is that the companies will simply roll over and expect a belly rub just like a puppy seeking affection. Because they face the same deal wherever they go, but china is cheaper so why fight it?
Very few "drones" are capable of this feat, any that are, are very large, very expensive, professional quality items of the type used by TV news crews and.... police forces.
So either the TV news/police are generating their own news stories to further a shock and outrage agenda against "drones" (a theory which I subscribe to) or the perpetrator will be ridiculously easy to find, just look for the richest local chump for whom blowing several thousands of dollars on what is essentially a toy when not being used for actual work is meaningless.
These quadcopters, hexcopters etc are generally NOT "drones". A few do have proper autopilot and/or computer C&C with pathfinding etc, but the majority are nothing more than RC aircraft. It is stupid to call them drones unless you are going to apply that name to all RC aircraft equally.
"Apple even pinched their logo and name way back in the day!"
Don't forget,they also sued the original Apple records for trademarks and being too similar because they also sold music.... regardless of the fact that Apple records had existed and sold music for a decade before the other apple even existed (apple records - 1968, apple computers - 1977).
I can just imagine the conversation....
"I think your lightsabers infringe on our patents.... on screen they look like very long rectangles with rounded corners and could easily be mistaken for an iPhone®. If you don't want us to sue your ass off then you had better change them to be more raggedy and shitty."
Droids in the star wars universe are generally memory wiped every few years to stop any problematic tendencies due to emerging sentience, R2-D2 and C3-P0 (and presumably IG-88) are not the norm thus explaining their various idiosyncrasies and why they act a lot more like living beings than the other droids commonly depicted.
There are "force based" civilizations also, the Night Witches of Dathomir probably being the most recognizable to many (see here http://imgur.com/gallery/FMNUt ). Though many are in sharp decline or have died out/been hunted to extinction.
""Cortana was created to be a truly personal digital assistant – available on the go, no matter where or when you need help, and on whatever device you carry," wrote Cortana group program manager Marcus Ash."
"No matter where" my hairy arse, try using it with the English language whilst the location is set to any other country (Japan in my case) and it'll puke out excuses that Cortana is unavailable with your settings/location. Of course the location could always be set to match the language (British English/UK for example) but then nothing else bloody works (windows store, office360 etc).
Same issue on a win10 laptop using English language in Japan. I could get Cortana to work if I change all my settings to British English and location to UK but that would bork pretty much everything BUT Cortana.
Microsoft seems to be pretty much self defeating these days, if I could get away with scrubbing the damn thing and just installing Linux I would do so in a heartbeat.
Now hear me out, this isn't a racism thing (no, really).
Assuming that this "machine learning" software gets its info from the interwebs, then it could have come to the conclusion that "gorilla" ≈ "attractive".
The confusion arising from this: http://goo.gl/IcM7UI
The more it sees the term "gorilla" equating to "attractive" then it associates the term but without the context to differentiate. And importantly - it has nothing to do with skin colour, just word meaning.
Then the story becomes something else entirely. We should perhaps be more worried that a piece of software has gained enough sentience to develop preferences regarding how attractive it finds people.
It's true - in that a live email server shouldn't be used as a filing system, however archived copies kept on a separate server (multiple copies on multiple servers at separate locations to be pedantic, with no outside facing network connections) very much should be kept as such and is indeed legally required.in many cases as is version control, as otherwise the archived mail can be changed willy nilly to remove incriminating or exculpatory material.
All that is apparently only for the plebs it seems, as the government can just say sod it and delete anything they don't like the idea of anyone ever reading.
I used to work for a government sponsored "Back to Work" program and we were legally required to store ALL correspondence (plus a copy at a separate location in case of fire or whatever) for a minimum of 10 years, be it physical or electronic. Had to hire off-site storage units to deal with all the physical stuff.
Another case of the governments "Do as I say not as I do" attitude. We could have faced serious legal issues and maybe even criminal charges if we did not follow those rules to the letter but somehow it's okay for the government to just destroy that stuff? It just makes me suspicious of what exactly they're trying to hide.
The argument could also be made that Apple and Google are protecting us all by denying ISIS affiliated hackers the opportunity to create chaos, financial instability, and perhaps deaths by insisting on strong crypto.
But that argument wouldn't be very successful at scaring people no matter how Bill O'Reilly and pals tried to spin it so they'll stick with the other thing.
To be clear - I am opposed to the secrecy surrounding this agreement.
However, this has got to be the stupidest thing Wikileaks has ever done. Previously they could claim that they never actively participated or coerced information but this changes that and possibly in a very, very bad way.
I fully expect details (perhaps not full disclosure but partial at least) to be leaked to them and as soon as they actually pay any cash then BAM! Jailtime for anyone involved. Actively causing, arranging or assisting in the leak of confidential documents is a crime, and I have no doubt that offering payment to directly cause said leak will also be some kind of crime like bribery, it's like theyre begging to be shut down and jailed. I really do not understand why the members of Wikileaks would consider this, multiple agencies from a number of governments must be literally drooling in expectation of shutting them up for good (and having a legitimate legal reason to do so).
I have to wonder, is this some faustian deal that asshat Assange has arranged to be made free? Betray Wikileaks and ensure its permanent shutdown and get safe passage to an airport? I don't see any other way that this could make sense and even then I don't see how those currently running Wikileaks could think this is a sensable action.
This to me means only one thing - ALL your connected devices will only be supported for 6 months then you'll need to buy the newest version to keep receiving support for the next 6 months or connect to any newer devices even though they run the same standards for communication.
Makers will swear on their grannies graves that the "old" product is incapable of supporting the latest update whilst clever sods at XDA will not only prove that to be bollocks but that the device actually works better/faster with the upgrade and all the while the manufacturers will be raking in stupid profits not only by charging a premium but because people will be stupid enough to buy new devices every 6 months where a dumb device would have worked for many years.
nope, hippos, elephants, even giraffs and buffalo etc can all be rulled out by one thing - "... Its tail sways like a cedar." and cedars are pretty big trees.
Not sayin that there were sauropods surviving 2000 or so years ago, but there's a good chance they unearthed a complete or mostly complete fossil that blew their minds. Much like the possibility that the griffin is based on a ceratopsid fossil (lion sized with a beak) and these particular fossils appear all the time out of the sand in the Gobi desert, hundreds of them and in the very location where griffins were supposed to live no less. The bible, once you remove the angry old man in the clouds and obvious allegory, actually contains quite a bit of historical fact, which though often influenced by the political thinking of the time is verified by archaeologists and accurate enought to plan further digs from. It's really not much of a stretch to think that they found a fossil and thought there must be more out there.
Some interesting reading about the Gobi desert and "griffin" fossils. http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/mythic-creatures/land-creatures-of-the-earth/griffin-bones
Actually sauropod is the genus name covering that particular branch of dinosaur some of which were only 20 or so feet long, and that should read "..takes cover amongst the reeds in the marsh." which is a proposed habitat for such creatures. Read the rest of the passages and you'll see that they are indeed talking about a very large creature.
"Wouldn't they just counter, "Then why isn't God covering Ireland in toads or whatever? THEY'RE the sinners here, not the people of Oklahoma and so on..."?"
Nope, didn't you know that all the Irish actually live in America? That's why EVERY damn American proudly proclaims to be Irish whilst in the next breath proclaim that they're the most "patriotic" American like... ever.
Hopefully this will actually reduce the amount of blissfully ignorant fools claiming to be Irish, if just for a little while.
You realize the irony of your statement I hope? That as an anonymous coward you just called for the previous anonymous coward to be killed because anonymous cowards should be killed for calling for the death of others?
It's a vicious circle. One that I am strangely happy with.
The slower it flys the higher the angle of attack must be to keep sufficient airflow over the wings as they are low camber/low drag type airfoils which aren't terribly suited to low speed flight so the high angle of attack on the Typhoon is also a giveaway that it is flying much slower than standard cruise, presumably to keep pace with the Hurricane. Something most photoshopers would not take into account.
Actually I tried a Lumia for about 6 months, it was crap and I went back to a Galaxy at the first opportunity and I have previously tried an iphone as well so... yeah. I stand by my comment. Just take a look through the comments on here regarding phones, you will see many, many iOS and Android users flaming left and right and few if any Winphone users doing the same thing.
"...I'll leave it to iOS users here to comment on whether iOS has any major annoyances that need fixing."
Other than holier than thou users? They're the biggest annoyance of iOS, though to be honest Android suffers quite a bit from the same issue. WinPhone users, not so much, they're usually too ashamed to proselytize, wether or not that's a good or bad thing though....anyones guess.
"...Leon Bottou, whose long-term goal "is to understand how to build human-level intelligence""
Perhaps he has led a sheltered life but pretty much the rest of humanity already has a handle on this one. It's called 'sex' and when a man and a woman love each other very much......
It amazes me the differences in how certain companies are treated.
Google = "We will bitchslap you for including Google maps, GMail etc on android but allowing others to provide similar apps to replace them."
Apple = "Sure, do whatever the hell you want, btw my account number for that transfer is......"
So who's taking bets on how long it will be before some fame seeking hipster straps one of these to something other than a wrist and appears in a sex tape which also displays the "pulse" for added effect?
Because we all know it WILL happen. Proof in case is that there is already a porn novel (I shit you not).
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Invaded-iWatch-Erotic-Digital-Desires-ebook/dp/B00V2WXYO4
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