Posts by vadertime

Our Skyborg (actual US govt program) will be just like IBM Watson, beams Air Force bod

Skyborg===========>Skynet. Can you say killer drones, killer tanks and then killer Terminators. It's a Pandora's box, once opened you cannot put the killer drones back in there. In the early 1970s, there was a movie that warned of AI and it was called "Colossus: The Forbin Project". I highly recommend that readers go see it if they missed it when it came out back then. Good night, good people of Planet Earth.

Mozilla backs away from mobile OS as Android looks invincible

The Android-iOS duopoly was already in full swing 24 months ago. Both mobile OS' have humongous lead over everyone else that nobody can catch the. It's like the 100 meter dash where these two are already near the finish line and the others are still standing at the start line. First to innovate and first to market, it's a classic example in the business world.

Hey, YouTube lovers! How about you pay us, we start paying for STUFF? - Google

Not happening

I enjoy getting on YouTube to watch music videos from time to time. I'm highly irritated to have to sit through 15-30 seconds of forced commercials before the actual music video plays, but such is the price of free crapware. However, I'm not sure I want to pay for YouTube service unless Google wants to sell me NFL football or College football games a la carte. That, I might pay for, but not for low-quality videos pervasive on YouTube.

Who's the best-built bot that makes the US military hot? SCHAFT!

Skynet coming too?

So, does this mean that Skynet is just around the corner. What happed to "Do No Evil"? Are we going to have to pass the 3 laws of roboics, i.e. Isaac Assimov's "I, Robot"? I have so many questions. Also why does Google need to buy a company that makes terrifying military robots with animal names? I think Skynet is coming, because if anybody can deliver on the failed promises of A.I. over the past 25 years, it will be Google. Whether they want to or not, they are about to open that Pandora's box. I say this as software developer who has been in the biz for almost 30 years. Skynet is coming.........be afraid, be very afraid.

Chromebook 11 CATCHES FIRE at last, FLIES off shelves

I've had the Samsung Chromebook for over 6 months now and never had any issues with heating or anything else. I love the device so much that I gave my daughter my 3 year old, very powerful, Dell Laptop. My only issue is that I wish it had better battery life. I leave it in sleep mode most of the time, but 3 days is about as long as the charge lasts even with very light use and the device being in sleep mode most of the time. Of course, that's a lot better than my Android smartphone, which needs to be charged nightly.

Will you strap on a Google KitKat 4.4 smartwatch this month?

Man, I certainly hope Google is coming out with an Android smartwatch. I need a gadget fix for the holidays and a smartwatch connected to my HTC one would be just the ticket. Bring it on Google.

Microsoft, Nokia and the sound of colliding garbage trucks

Two Garbage Trucks

I love this article. It's similar to an article from another publication, likening this marriage to the last two partners left at the dance, who decide to go home together. It's a sad hookup, but I think there may be legitimacy to the idea that Nokia may have been ready to jump over to the Android camp, which scared the heck out of Balmer. Nokia is a device company. They sell shiploads of phones at razor thin margins, or at least they used to. The Windows smartphone strategy, under Elop, didn't quite work out. Now that Elop is coming back to Microsoft after sabotaging and undermining Nokia, it's beginning to look like the conspiracy theorists might have been right, but I digress. I think the sound of two garbage trucks colliding in the distance is a very appropriate metaphor. The Titanic is the only other metaphor that comes to mind.

Microsoft Surface sales numbers revealed as SHOCKINGLY HIDEOUS

Stick to Office

What they should have done is developed the Office Suite for iOS and Android instead of trying to milk the tablet market with Windows 8, which is basically a desktop system trying to be touch-enabled OS.

Throwing arms let humans rise above poo-flinging apes to play cricket

Spear Chucking

I think that the motion involved in spear throwing is much closer to throwing a baseball than to hurling a cricket ball. As a child I played both sports when I grew up in the Middle East and Asia. Nowadays, I live here in America and I was listening to NPR on the way to work this morning and they had a lengthy segment on this topic. Cro-Magnon, evolved with the upright shoulder blades, which are needed for horizontal throwing motions. He also was a runner. These two abilities to chase down prey and hurl objects at it while on the run allowed him to become a superior predator, especially when hunting in groups. Amazing what 2 million years of evolution can accomplish, ehh? Scotty, are you there?

Another negative climate feedback: Warmer plants cool the planet

Plants and a Warming Planet

This article is interesting and the scientists suppose that the number of plants and plant-life remains constant. However, it is indisputable that human population growth is causing the disappearance of very large tracts of forests and jungles. Look to the Amazon over the past 50 years for evidence. Also, the heat is being held in the depths of the ocean, where the plants will have little impact. I'm not sure that this study was done with all the valid inputs and outputs considered regarding global warming.