Classic Shell
Nuff said.
34 publicly visible posts • joined 17 May 2011
A mate asked me to sort out an old glitching tower pc. "It's old. Don't worry if you can't fix it".
I've never seen one so solidly bunged up with dust. Couldn't see the heatsink.
Cover off, out on the decking. Crack valve on newly charged diving cylinder. Bloody thing took off like a scalded cat.
Really surprised no dents from the wooden fence that stopped it 15ft later.
Sorted the dust out and worked fine. Thanked him for the beer. Didn't mention the flight.
This is a huge subject but I feel a couple of assumptions need to be addressed.
1) AI would attack humans. This is just my observation as I am just a humble engineer but work alongside some highly educated scientists: The more highly educated and the greater the breadth of their knowledge, the gentler and more reasonable that person is. If this is accepted, one would expect to educate an AI to a high standard.
2) Humans apply their own so very limited 90 year timescales, because they are mortal, to their arguments concerning our demise. An AI need not be mortal, or more accurately, not have a limited lifespan. AI's could wait humans out. This would make humans the pupae stage of intelligent life on this planet.
The waiting out seems more likely and in some ways inevitable. Humans have devised devices to make their lives easier and easier over time. Getting machines to do the thinking for them is the next logical step. They will end up having lives of leisure supported and cared for by their machines and eventually the need to reproduce will diminish.
So on the whole I agree with Stephen but it's just a matter of when.
Of course these are just assumptions.
Personally aside from general physics, just no noisy explosions and more realistic lighting in space would be welcome.
I will also be watching it at home when it comes out on Blueray. I love the big screen but find the experience spoiled by the lights half on, noisy eaters, talkers and kids on phones. At home I get comfy seats (I'm 6'7"...), free (almost) popcorn and proper beer along with a big(ish) screen and decent sound.
This reminds me of George Bush saying "The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur" because Microsoft obviously don't know what productivity means.
No-one likes change to their well practiced office routine but this is a good case for at least trying Libre/ Open Office. Unless you do really serious spreadsheet or *any* database work, you might be pleasantly suprised. What have you got to lose - it's free.
I contracted to HP for a few years as a field agent fixing stuff. The staff turnover was appalling - so much so that you never knew who'd be on the phone when you called the office. They treated both staff and contractors like poo.
We were always puzzled because despite their fairly ruthless strategies internally and externally they always seemed to somehow have such a squeaky clean image. Such is the power of marketing I suppose.
We came to the conclusion that HP = Horrible People. More of the same then.
I live in the UK and worked for an American corporation for 11 years - who got bought by an Indian company (the nicest guys but not the faintest clue what they were doing - another story...). I moved to another smaller American company (still in the UK). I've also previously worked for another US corporation.
IMHO
My observation of US vs UK companies is that the US companies are insular and hierarchical. I will get to the point...
The top man has a "great idea". Everyone thinks its wonderful. There can be no argument - if there is it's likely your pass will suddenly stop working. A popular phrase is "Its great isn't it?"... Think about the coercive nature of the phrase. The question isn't an option. It's just part of the culture. Apple is floundering because for all Steve Jobs faults he did have some great ideas. Microsoft seems to be heading tube-wards... no names mentioned. Even in this day and age the US guys seem to have no concept of an outside world to the point where my company for instance still uses imperial sized nuts and bolts for a global product. Trying to explain things just results in buying imperial sized spanners. Customers are the last people they'd listen to. They're bottom of the pile. What do they know?
You may notice I refer to "Companies" and not "People" because on an individual basis, Americans have been accommodating and generally kind people but Companies there seem to have a life and ethos of their own.
The result of this culture is forging ahead with their product no matter what. This used to work.
It's been illegal in the UK for some time with a £1000 fine but...
When I'm a passenger in a car and get a bit bored I play a little game. I watch the opposite carriageway and count how many vehicles go by until I see someone on the phone. The maximum I've ever got is 24. Mostly its in the region of about 10.
I'm a driver, cyclist and pedestrian. I've seen some things on the road. Last week a woman in a big Merc nearly took the front of my car. Her hand was up against the window with the phone jammed against her ear - she didn't even look in my direction at the junction and a while back I was walking to work. As I walked across a side road a car suddenly turned in at speed (driver on the phone) to do a 3 point turn. I nearly became a bonnet mascot. Those and people I've seen on motorways drifting out of their lane make banning it a worthy cause but obviously from the UK's point of view - it's un-enforceable.
With all due respect to your source I doubt this will last long if it's true. I suggest that the tablet form factor will wipe the floor given a little more time because of the generation growing up with touch screen devices.
Walk down any street, sit on any bus or train and look at the kids and their phones. They will drive the market.
I think it's to do with the perception that Apple have always made nice but expensive products. Android is perceived as being functional and good at what it does but we're all expecting (and waiting for) it to be cheaper than Apple.
Currently a *good* Android tablet costs the same as an iPad. The iPad isn't necessarily better but it's perceived as more expensive, so the Android device isn't perceived to be a good deal.
IMHO Android pads will sell when there's a good functional product that undercuts Apple by a significant margin and then they'll sell like hot cakes.
OK, supposing that the Android system is compromised and that this isn't a M$ smear campaign.
My HTC phone is branded by Orange and still has Android 2.2 because Orange's updates are always way behind the real release. I can't load vanilla Android without voiding my warranty so Orange are now putting all of their customers at risk by not supplying an update.
My question is this: If there is a real security threat, do Orange now have the right to require all of its users to stick with their "version" of the OS on the phones they supply?