The way AIML is structured, primarily for dialogue engines, appears (though still untested) to be very amenable for the productio rule structure of an expert system.
The question really is whether AIML would be sufficient to use in making an expert system. How malleable would it be for the synthesis of production rules using primitives available in AIML and its extensions?
Luckily there are some interesting "knowledge" oriented structured datasets such as ontologies and taxonomies lying around that could be used to try to answer these questions by attempting a rudimentary AIML production rule system.
... Read more
15 November 2008
13 November 2008
todo: next quantum steps
With the ability to decipher the mathematical outlines of modern matter theory, the next steps are to revisit some recent motivations (1990s) for that endeavour:
- QUIT: explore QUantum Information Theory issues such as
- update to its consequences in computer arch and communication;
- revisit notions of remote entanglement and decoherence on which QUIT is based.
- is "communication" by entanglement/decoherence really channel-less?
- if speed is relativistic, then is it affected by material media like c?
- revisit algorithms of Shor, correction codes , cnot circuits, etc., hopefully better equipped this time 'round.
- GUT: how gauge invariance formalisms lead to the competing unification theories such as quantum loop gravity, symmetry breaking and string , membrane and M theories.
It is also time the satirist's history of quantum mechanics was revisited. ... Read more
- QUIT: explore QUantum Information Theory issues such as
- update to its consequences in computer arch and communication;
- revisit notions of remote entanglement and decoherence on which QUIT is based.
- is "communication" by entanglement/decoherence really channel-less?
- if speed is relativistic, then is it affected by material media like c?
- revisit algorithms of Shor, correction codes , cnot circuits, etc., hopefully better equipped this time 'round.
- GUT: how gauge invariance formalisms lead to the competing unification theories such as quantum loop gravity, symmetry breaking and string , membrane and M theories.
It is also time the satirist's history of quantum mechanics was revisited. ... Read more
06 November 2008
mathematical prerequisites for gauge theories
where yellow box = theory , and green ellipses=objects.
Information in the above is from the two texts,
George Svetlichny, "Preparation for gauge theory", arXiv:math-ph/9902027v3 12 Mar 1999. (a quick review).
Aitchison & Hey, Gauge Theories in Particle Physics, Volume 1: From Relativistic Quantum Mechanics to QED, Third Edition, CRC Press, 2002.
From a theoretic-organization perspective, a different graph is needed, an abridged draft of which is shown here,
p.s. From a graphing perspective, the top graph contains the information content of only about a minute's worth of reading. Which unfortunately does not bode very well for the general utility of theorem graphs considered in an earlier note. ... Read more
04 November 2008
Theorem graphs
Theorem graphs are as useful as text in conveying information on the mathematical or theoretical subject being studied.
There are several types of graphs or graph categories and an application is needed to let users manipulate those graph category to cover a particular theorem , theory or field of study.
Such an application should enable users to select what types of graphs they want to view or update (edit)
as well as to view more types of graphs at the same time
The ability to zoom in and out navigate edit and update the graph
Zooming should be implemented both
a) visually (the familiar zoom in out scaling)
b) and structurally by the ability to "collapse" a group of nodes or subgraph (if the subgraph is collapsible) into a single node and to expand a node to a collection of nodes or subgraph , if the node happens to be "expandable".
This enables the user's navigation across layers of abstraction or layers of detail, and lower level of the theoretic body.
The graphs should cover a wide range of fine-ness , from the most general, broad label, type graphs ,
to the very fine structure of the elements that go into a definition or a theorem.
In the limit, a theorem graph should be able to "graphize" even the elements of a proof of a theorem, through a combination of logic and object graphs.
The Types of graphs:
object graphs: where
nodes tend to represent
- entities , such as sets and sequences
- operations, such as binary relations or maps (eg, functions)
- properties, such as linearity, commutativity
edges to to represent a relation of the type "this goes into this, or makes up this"
more formally, the child "has" the parent property or relation or set
logic graphs
where emphasis is on meanings of edges, which include:
parent proves child
the edges represent a sequence of steps in a proof, with the ultimate node being
an enunciation of the theorem
There is still some ambiguity on the choice of what nodes are to represent.
They can represent steps in a single proof , in sequence ,
where each step is node
historical graphs
nodes include
writings
persons
experiments
date node: plaintext nodes with "year" labels connected by invisible edges to make a timeline, as seen in the old unix
history dot graph.
Nodes also include
definitions
theorems
hypotheses , conjectures, etc.
theories : more general than theorem, and generally correspond to a distinct field of study as well as part of a theoretic framework
Edges in historical graphs often denote "contributes to" as well "leads to"
Because there are different categories of graphs, the user should be able to switch graph categories on and off according to their convenience.
In a historical graph, a user should be able to click on a node for a given theorem, and thus expands a subgraph which in fuller detail, shows the user depending on his choice, either the object or logic makeup of the theorem or definition.
Examples with static graphs and more notes can be found at math_graphs. ... Read more
There are several types of graphs or graph categories and an application is needed to let users manipulate those graph category to cover a particular theorem , theory or field of study.
Such an application should enable users to select what types of graphs they want to view or update (edit)
as well as to view more types of graphs at the same time
The ability to zoom in and out navigate edit and update the graph
Zooming should be implemented both
a) visually (the familiar zoom in out scaling)
b) and structurally by the ability to "collapse" a group of nodes or subgraph (if the subgraph is collapsible) into a single node and to expand a node to a collection of nodes or subgraph , if the node happens to be "expandable".
This enables the user's navigation across layers of abstraction or layers of detail, and lower level of the theoretic body.
The graphs should cover a wide range of fine-ness , from the most general, broad label, type graphs ,
to the very fine structure of the elements that go into a definition or a theorem.
In the limit, a theorem graph should be able to "graphize" even the elements of a proof of a theorem, through a combination of logic and object graphs.
The Types of graphs:
object graphs: where
nodes tend to represent
- entities , such as sets and sequences
- operations, such as binary relations or maps (eg, functions)
- properties, such as linearity, commutativity
edges to to represent a relation of the type "this goes into this, or makes up this"
more formally, the child "has" the parent property or relation or set
logic graphs
where emphasis is on meanings of edges, which include:
parent proves child
the edges represent a sequence of steps in a proof, with the ultimate node being
an enunciation of the theorem
There is still some ambiguity on the choice of what nodes are to represent.
They can represent steps in a single proof , in sequence ,
where each step is node
historical graphs
nodes include
writings
persons
experiments
date node: plaintext nodes with "year" labels connected by invisible edges to make a timeline, as seen in the old unix
history dot graph.
Nodes also include
definitions
theorems
hypotheses , conjectures, etc.
theories : more general than theorem, and generally correspond to a distinct field of study as well as part of a theoretic framework
Edges in historical graphs often denote "contributes to" as well "leads to"
Because there are different categories of graphs, the user should be able to switch graph categories on and off according to their convenience.
In a historical graph, a user should be able to click on a node for a given theorem, and thus expands a subgraph which in fuller detail, shows the user depending on his choice, either the object or logic makeup of the theorem or definition.
Examples with static graphs and more notes can be found at math_graphs. ... Read more
film r-vu draft: Wall-E
Wall-E actually programs the young to fulfill the horrifying dystopic visionin the film.
This is the price of wanton emotional manipulation of kids by misanthropes.
The price is life on Earth and humanity.
Thus viewed the quirky pitch modulations of the robots' voices take on a very sinister frightening quality. ... Read more
This is the price of wanton emotional manipulation of kids by misanthropes.
The price is life on Earth and humanity.
Thus viewed the quirky pitch modulations of the robots' voices take on a very sinister frightening quality. ... Read more
03 November 2008
chatbox dead giveaway
The Loebner award recognizes that the bots it rewards as most life-like do not pass the Turing test.
But there should be a dead giveway they would not pass the Turing test, without even having to do the test. I am almost certain the prize participants are aware of it because it would be an astounding shortcoming if they are not. On the other hand if they are aware of it, why haven't they rectified it and fixed the problem? And if it is not fixable, then why bother with the Award program at all?
------
four chatbots:
* http://www.elbot.com/
* http://www.icogno.com/joan.html
* http://www.pandorabots.com/pandora/talk?botid=f5d922d97e345aa1
* http://www.jabberwacky.com/
------
The chatboxes or bots listed above lack the notable feature we should from anything that would pass the Turing test: autonomy. The bots mentioned are all only event-driven. Without any input from the user, they do nothing.
At least Elbot recognizes blank inputs, but without any input from the users , blank or not, these four bots are dumb.
As autonomous agents, humans have the potential to talk almost endlessly along coherent lines of reasoning. Being self-motivated, they have the ability to pick subjects, organize ideas and reasoning about them, probe past memory for things they might *want* to remember to mention. All these things contribute to the shape forms and usage of natural language, to the way natural language sounds to it.
Without this dimension, no matter how funny or witty the hardcoded responses thought up by the authors are, there's a very obvious dead endedness or closed quality to the chats.
As if this weren't enough, there is furthermore another difference from human conversation. With these chatbots, the speech responses are alternated between the bot and the user , in a ping pong fashion. In human conversation, it is customary to be interrupted, sometimes ignored, sometimes responses are formed that are spoken over your message, and responses occur in real time as the two parties speak at the same time. In human chat situation, there is no such articificial synchronized input - response sequence. Chatters often type at the same time, sometimes inputs or queries receives other queries as a response due to this lack of synchronization between the speakers.
As a further aside there is also the question of whether and how does XSL and XML deal with temporal reasoning ? If not this could present a possible limitation to the ability of AIML to handle complex reasoning tasks. There are extensions however, and example of where extensions enabled the synthesis of elements like conditional responses, as outlined in t
One of the conclusions is that how can all this be known by the Loebner prize people and yet they proceed with so-called Turing tests. Doesn't the foregoing mean a failure even before the Turing test is started? An a priori failure by default. The conclusion means that the Loebner Prize is really a joke, that the effort is not well-guided, that it simply rewards the wit of funny responses and cute avatar graphics.
That is it takes things like videographic and speech synthesized chatbots as advances, whereas they are only windowdressing with real substance missing and omitted.
The pretentiousness of participants (those that apply for the prie) then is thus clear. They know they are not Turing test worthy, and yet they join just to get cutesy awards of "most human-like". This constitutes a joke, a sham, a waste of time, mock AI. Not AI.
P.S. - 19.xi.08 - Come to think of it, even the name of AIML (which i think was dev'd by Alice' folks) is unfortunate. Maybe W3C should 've copyrighted the use of the partial-acronym ML (just kidding; I'm all for memetic freedom and all). It's certainly an ML, this AIML, but it's *not* AI. At least it is not all the AI there is, if i'm not misunderstanding anything. Even if i'm misunderstanding all the possibilities of AIML, it's still an application within the linguistic or reasoning school of AI (ultimately relying on a von Neumann machine), and not of the connectionist or genetic or distributed paradigms (to say nothing of new AI algorithms for quantumputers - hopefully exploiting other than just massive parallelism). ... Read more
But there should be a dead giveway they would not pass the Turing test, without even having to do the test. I am almost certain the prize participants are aware of it because it would be an astounding shortcoming if they are not. On the other hand if they are aware of it, why haven't they rectified it and fixed the problem? And if it is not fixable, then why bother with the Award program at all?
------
four chatbots:
* http://www.elbot.com/
* http://www.icogno.com/joan.html
* http://www.pandorabots.com/pandora/talk?botid=f5d922d97e345aa1
* http://www.jabberwacky.com/
------
The chatboxes or bots listed above lack the notable feature we should from anything that would pass the Turing test: autonomy. The bots mentioned are all only event-driven. Without any input from the user, they do nothing.
At least Elbot recognizes blank inputs, but without any input from the users , blank or not, these four bots are dumb.
As autonomous agents, humans have the potential to talk almost endlessly along coherent lines of reasoning. Being self-motivated, they have the ability to pick subjects, organize ideas and reasoning about them, probe past memory for things they might *want* to remember to mention. All these things contribute to the shape forms and usage of natural language, to the way natural language sounds to it.
Without this dimension, no matter how funny or witty the hardcoded responses thought up by the authors are, there's a very obvious dead endedness or closed quality to the chats.
As if this weren't enough, there is furthermore another difference from human conversation. With these chatbots, the speech responses are alternated between the bot and the user , in a ping pong fashion. In human conversation, it is customary to be interrupted, sometimes ignored, sometimes responses are formed that are spoken over your message, and responses occur in real time as the two parties speak at the same time. In human chat situation, there is no such articificial synchronized input - response sequence. Chatters often type at the same time, sometimes inputs or queries receives other queries as a response due to this lack of synchronization between the speakers.
As a further aside there is also the question of whether and how does XSL and XML deal with temporal reasoning ? If not this could present a possible limitation to the ability of AIML to handle complex reasoning tasks. There are extensions however, and example of where extensions enabled the synthesis of elements like conditional responses, as outlined in t
One of the conclusions is that how can all this be known by the Loebner prize people and yet they proceed with so-called Turing tests. Doesn't the foregoing mean a failure even before the Turing test is started? An a priori failure by default. The conclusion means that the Loebner Prize is really a joke, that the effort is not well-guided, that it simply rewards the wit of funny responses and cute avatar graphics.
That is it takes things like videographic and speech synthesized chatbots as advances, whereas they are only windowdressing with real substance missing and omitted.
The pretentiousness of participants (those that apply for the prie) then is thus clear. They know they are not Turing test worthy, and yet they join just to get cutesy awards of "most human-like". This constitutes a joke, a sham, a waste of time, mock AI. Not AI.
P.S. - 19.xi.08 - Come to think of it, even the name of AIML (which i think was dev'd by Alice' folks) is unfortunate. Maybe W3C should 've copyrighted the use of the partial-acronym ML (just kidding; I'm all for memetic freedom and all). It's certainly an ML, this AIML, but it's *not* AI. At least it is not all the AI there is, if i'm not misunderstanding anything. Even if i'm misunderstanding all the possibilities of AIML, it's still an application within the linguistic or reasoning school of AI (ultimately relying on a von Neumann machine), and not of the connectionist or genetic or distributed paradigms (to say nothing of new AI algorithms for quantumputers - hopefully exploiting other than just massive parallelism). ... Read more
collective unconscious wants gopher
My first encounter with the Internet was via Gopher ca. '91 - '93. I noticed its yielding of relevance to HTTP even before the Internet Commercialization Act of 1995, and more assuredly so afterward. Nostalgia however kept "gopher" hovering in the cloud way in the back of the mind. A couple months ago, I started getting an itch to look up gopher on Wikipedia in anticipation of finding where there is still access.**
Well, after zoning out of the idea every time it hit me when i'm busy over the past two months or so, I looked up gopher at wikipedia.
** There was anticipation because of course there must be access to Gopher still (it's been made GNU GPL anyway, i thought it had always been "open"! but it wasn't) as there are NNTP servers. Because there always should be NNTP servers and every TCP/IP App layer protocol should be kept. This must be contentious for a lot of design thinking where comprehensive backward compability is irrelevant, costly and therefore ridiculous. But I mean we're talking client server protocol implementations that should be tiny (in text and data (mem) complexity), not hulking 3.5'' drives (not to mention 5.25's and tape readers :)), right?
So keeping as many of the useful proven RFC's (ie their protocols) alive is historically cool, maintains diversity in the design idea pool and the variety of media for the choosy / nostalgic users who choose nothing better to do than to write about it like this.
In any case, looking gopher up , I read (this being a recurrent pattern btw) that it so happens there is at present increased interest in gopher: "As of 2008, there are approximately 125 gopher servers indexed by Veronica-2,[8] a slow growth from 2007 when there were fewer than 100." (ibid.)
So once again, it seems that an idea (in this case the rekindling of interest in gopher) was not just appear here only but instead it was non local, generalized, occuring in several instances more or less in a short interval of time (say the span of 2008 - in my case through late summer and fall). ... Read more
Well, after zoning out of the idea every time it hit me when i'm busy over the past two months or so, I looked up gopher at wikipedia.
** There was anticipation because of course there must be access to Gopher still (it's been made GNU GPL anyway, i thought it had always been "open"! but it wasn't) as there are NNTP servers. Because there always should be NNTP servers and every TCP/IP App layer protocol should be kept. This must be contentious for a lot of design thinking where comprehensive backward compability is irrelevant, costly and therefore ridiculous. But I mean we're talking client server protocol implementations that should be tiny (in text and data (mem) complexity), not hulking 3.5'' drives (not to mention 5.25's and tape readers :)), right?
So keeping as many of the useful proven RFC's (ie their protocols) alive is historically cool, maintains diversity in the design idea pool and the variety of media for the choosy / nostalgic users who choose nothing better to do than to write about it like this.
In any case, looking gopher up , I read (this being a recurrent pattern btw) that it so happens there is at present increased interest in gopher: "As of 2008, there are approximately 125 gopher servers indexed by Veronica-2,[8] a slow growth from 2007 when there were fewer than 100." (ibid.)
So once again, it seems that an idea (in this case the rekindling of interest in gopher) was not just appear here only but instead it was non local, generalized, occuring in several instances more or less in a short interval of time (say the span of 2008 - in my case through late summer and fall). ... Read more
01 November 2008
space age is here
Space age is here when every few months we run into people putting appearances in helmets, but rather very cool helmets.
Of course tons of vectors lead up to it, from mountains of scifi, to the emerging universal bashfulness all of a sudden with everybody hooded in news footage, to the possibility those helmets comment on that. That bit particularly is doctrinal shit. It's a counter counter counter cou- hey that's my tail i been trying to catch .
Back to the helmets:
Nobody's helmets are cooler than Daft Punk's. If their music weren't cool they could probably eke a living just pimping those cool helmets. I'd seen their photos before, but early this year, I Ran into this photo when Facebook launched fan pages. Theirs was among the first. copyright copyright. yes the image is the copyright of "them" the owners of the copyright, which is linguistically redundant.
Not much later on, sprucing up the late summer news cycle, shenanigans of a certain Anonymous landed me on youtube watching one of his/their videos, from which was taken this snapshot with the helmet really stealing the show.
Speaking of which, is the whole Anonymous mystique is a sort of experiment in social dislocation by something like "RAND Corporation: The New Generation" ? nothing is impossible, :) particularly this sort of thing.
Later on the helmet got surreal beyond human comprehensibility.
Rather anticlimatically, finally my latest encounter was a couple of days ago when I saw the a thumbnail of the picture below at news.bbc pointing at some TV awards pics. The photo is of The Stig, a race driver & presenter of brit automoto TV program , Top Gear, getting an award. Ne'erheardo'im. But he's the Stig. new generation of racing,
helmet always on. day and night.
Meanwhile android designers have been taking to the human look of late,
I think such similitude is as ridiculous as the plaque sent with Pioneer craft in the 70s.
which brings us back to that the space age is here. ... Read more
 |  |  |
Of course tons of vectors lead up to it, from mountains of scifi, to the emerging universal bashfulness all of a sudden with everybody hooded in news footage, to the possibility those helmets comment on that. That bit particularly is doctrinal shit. It's a counter counter counter cou- hey that's my tail i been trying to catch .
Back to the helmets:
Nobody's helmets are cooler than Daft Punk's. If their music weren't cool they could probably eke a living just pimping those cool helmets. I'd seen their photos before, but early this year, I Ran into this photo when Facebook launched fan pages. Theirs was among the first. copyright copyright. yes the image is the copyright of "them" the owners of the copyright, which is linguistically redundant.
Not much later on, sprucing up the late summer news cycle, shenanigans of a certain Anonymous landed me on youtube watching one of his/their videos, from which was taken this snapshot with the helmet really stealing the show.
Speaking of which, is the whole Anonymous mystique is a sort of experiment in social dislocation by something like "RAND Corporation: The New Generation" ? nothing is impossible, :) particularly this sort of thing.
Later on the helmet got surreal beyond human comprehensibility.
Rather anticlimatically, finally my latest encounter was a couple of days ago when I saw the a thumbnail of the picture below at news.bbc pointing at some TV awards pics. The photo is of The Stig, a race driver & presenter of brit automoto TV program , Top Gear, getting an award. Ne'erheardo'im. But he's the Stig. new generation of racing,
helmet always on. day and night.
Meanwhile android designers have been taking to the human look of late,
I think such similitude is as ridiculous as the plaque sent with Pioneer craft in the 70s.
which brings us back to that the space age is here. ... Read more
28 October 2008
مقارنة المقترحات الضريبية بين أوباما و ماكين
The actual tax plan figures compared
من المؤسف عدم إستطاعة المرء متابعة المقترحات المماثلة فى مسرحنا السياسى المحلى نظرا لإنعدام مثل هذا الوضوح و الـ "إعلام" فى الصحافة المحلية.
Contrary to what is being claimed by the GOP and the media, eg, Mitchell Rofsky's misleading article at the LA Times, the Obama tax plan does not increase taxes on those that earn 250,000 per annum, as the infographic from the Washington Post shows below:
It clearly shows that Obama's plan carries no change at all for households/families in the 22698 - 603402 income bracket. All that earn below that would experience a tax reduction, while only those earning over 603402 would face a tax increase.
I encountered the infographic at Ben Fry's blog.
In a follow-up post Fry points to a modified graphic
that shows that Obama's plan would increase taxes only for the top 0.9% of the population.
By comparison, the perfidy of McCain's plan becomes clear. It really exposes the hack and slave of power that McCain is. His plan reduces taxes for everybody, but crucially, the largest percentage decreases in taxes are for the top 1% of earners (-3 to -4.4% in tax reduction) , whereas the poorest would only experience the magnanimous decrease of 0.2 %. I know a lot of people what this means, but unfortunately many more do not realize what it means: These percentages are nothing to do with the amounts those people will pay, but amounts relative to what they earn. So irrespective of the income, you get -0.2% reduction if you're poor, but if you're rich you get a -3.3% reduction.
By contrast, Obama offers the poorest earners a -5.5% tax reduction.
Leaving aside any sentimentality (let alone ethical imperative!) about which group needs more load off its back, Obama's plan, even to an economic noninitiate like this writer , seems to be the sounder approach to relieving how far down the herculean financial crap shoot to which the GOP (those that lament BIG gvmt the loudest, yet are the most zealous in running a BIG brother public service system) have plunged that Public Service system's budget and trade balances.
---
Meanwhile, I wish I could be informed as clearly and succinctly about the politics of my own country. Alas, discussions of the sort in the local press remain impervious to me , with most of the discourse either devoid of information (the mainstream press) or full of wrongdoings of the ruling party (the opposition press) ranging in scope from emotional press scoop, to National Enquirer style gossip and slander.
- sigh - ... Read more
24 October 2008
We must not mine the moon يـنـبغى عدم التعدين على القمر
يتوجب على البشرية الإمتناع عن إستخراج المعادن من القمر لحين توفر تقنيات الدفع التى
تسمح بإستغلال الثروات المعدنية للأجرام السماوية الأبعد.
ذلك لأننا لا نعلم الا القليل عن أثر القمر على الدورات الحيوية و المائية على الأرض بخلاف الآثار التجاذبية المتمثلة فى حركة المد و الجذر.
من شأن عمليات التعدين الصناعى على القمر ما قد يؤدى لتكون غلاف من التلوث ناتج من غازات العادم و تناثر جسيمات التربة القمرية قد يؤدى الى إحتباس حرارى غلى سطح القمر.
بالإضافة الى هذا ما هى آثار الكثير من عمليات الهبوط و الإقلاع على جسم يقل فى كتلته و حجمه (مائة مرة فى الحالتين) و كثافته (النصف) عن الأرض؟
لذا يتوجب الحذر المتمثل فى حظر على الإضرار بالتوازن الدقيق للنظام الأرضى-القمرى فى أى تخطيط بعيد المدى لإستغلال ثروات المجموعة الشمسية.
One cannot stress this strongly enough: there must not be any mining on the moon.
This must be an important component in any space colonization strategy.
Once with propulsion costs overcome there is ample opportunity for mineral extraction throughout the solar system. But until we have the breakthroughs in propulsion and efficiency to motivate the endeavour we must persevere and resist the temptation to exploit the moon minerally as the prohibitiveness of the cost of moon mining will likely be overcome before that of the mining of much further objects like asteroids or Mars.
The moon's importance to the global biotic and water cycles is known only through the tidal effects of gravitation. But little else is known. Thus we do not know how a lot of high powered landings , take-offs and mining can affect the moon , its properties and perhaps even its motion.
Unforeseen effects which have haunted much of human modern (==global-scale) technology can be as bad as those experienced on Earth today or worse.
Such risk is definitely not worth it.
There are enough minerals in Earth to cover humanity's needs indefinitely or until some ecologically-imposed limit. There is no need whatever to risk damaging a delicate and intricate Earth-moon system in the time it will take to make heavy-payload interplanetary travel cheap enough for industrial exploitation. ... Read more
nice UI v latent critique
Video using the ITheora player and the Theora video format.
.
The "UI" refers to the rotating desktop environment in the video.
27.X.2008
Criticism to follow would be in order.
So - i don't wanna play the file again so memory might fail - the user in the vid uses several pieces of software on different desktops and virtual platforms, but how is this different from running all the software he ran on the same machine, perhaps on multiple desktops as has been possible with linux and solaris for the past umpteen years? The only difference is that 3d finding nemo school of fish and whales . But do I really need that when i'm trying to render a 3d model of a humongous data set with some software? or when i'm trying to test the performance of some java Web Publishing Platform and rule engine combination ? In other words, for computer usage that requires performance , this pretty cube is undesirable. Unless on sitting on terabytes of memory; but this is rarely the case except in very big high-risk servers. and ironically, all any important realtime server, will be addressed with a minimal sort of graphic UI on control consoles.
So who else would benefit from the pretty linux UI except those that actually do nothing with their computers but open and close web browsers and play videos ?
Ironically again, a lot of those will become stuck at some point on some linux arcanum that would frustrate the aesthetic gains.
Though linux, does have other gains to be fair. ... Read more
.
The "UI" refers to the rotating desktop environment in the video.
27.X.2008
Criticism to follow would be in order.
So - i don't wanna play the file again so memory might fail - the user in the vid uses several pieces of software on different desktops and virtual platforms, but how is this different from running all the software he ran on the same machine, perhaps on multiple desktops as has been possible with linux and solaris for the past umpteen years? The only difference is that 3d finding nemo school of fish and whales . But do I really need that when i'm trying to render a 3d model of a humongous data set with some software? or when i'm trying to test the performance of some java Web Publishing Platform and rule engine combination ? In other words, for computer usage that requires performance , this pretty cube is undesirable. Unless on sitting on terabytes of memory; but this is rarely the case except in very big high-risk servers. and ironically, all any important realtime server, will be addressed with a minimal sort of graphic UI on control consoles.
So who else would benefit from the pretty linux UI except those that actually do nothing with their computers but open and close web browsers and play videos ?
Ironically again, a lot of those will become stuck at some point on some linux arcanum that would frustrate the aesthetic gains.
Though linux, does have other gains to be fair. ... Read more
My eyes have seen you
Theora is an open video codec. perhaps; since i don't know the difference between a codec, an encoder, a format. i could distinguish a player from the foregoing. there are however also media containers. So the open source eager beaver coders don't actually have to do anything but skin up the container and reduce it to a subset of functions of their choice.
It comes from the open source Xiph.org Foundation and community; which in part speaks french.
They are the people who brought us the Ogg Vorbis and FLAC audio codecs.
There is a Theora wiki
which lists links to Theora video players like ITheora. It is an alternative to proprietary players and flash video. Their motto is "you can tube but I Theora".
Both the theora wiki and ITheora link to Theora Sea, a video sharing area that links to videos that the users themselves host locally rather than upload.
... Read more
It comes from the open source Xiph.org Foundation and community; which in part speaks french.
They are the people who brought us the Ogg Vorbis and FLAC audio codecs.
There is a Theora wiki
which lists links to Theora video players like ITheora. It is an alternative to proprietary players and flash video. Their motto is "you can tube but I Theora".
Both the theora wiki and ITheora link to Theora Sea, a video sharing area that links to videos that the users themselves host locally rather than upload.
... Read more
The killing of children in schools must Stop!
The continued murder of Children in Khorasan and the Sindh (Pak-Afghan) by Americans, NATO and other "coalition" members - or by others anywhere - should be stopped!
It behooves the civilized world to take action to stop this impunity, and stop such bleeding.
Mind you , this leaves as "civilized world" only some of the nations of the Non-Aligned movement (it still exists, if they want it). [note: they are civilized rather in their ethical compass though less so in their civic habits :) ]
The murder of children for attending a school to study the Qur'an serves none of the stated purposes of the perpetrators, though it may serve rather sinister unstated ones. It smacks of a religious genocide here, or at best an attempt to uproot natural vectors of a religion's history and sociological trends by lethal force , by martial force, by the unconscionable instrument of war.
We should have seen by now that attempts to tinker with nature, to alter a naturally evolved path has terrible consequences. Due to our ignorance of what we're pretending to understand and presuming to alter , it disrupts the whole system and sends natural equilibria into disarray.
Those actions are not justifiable on religious grounds, because the initial effort to even closely understand the "other" (the target of hostility) has not even yet begun. It has been rejected not on lack of intellectual or spiritual merit, but on zealous prejudice, and a priori rejection.
It is an action motivated at the base by concerns of financial and ethnocultural supremacy.
I think dollar to dollar, we could calculate that erradication of religiosity in a tribal country that translates into a stemming of anti-colonial intellectual and political activity among muslims at large, or at best an altering in muslim mainstream dogma that would be more amenable to presentday neoliberal economic beleifs could ultimately translate into a few millions more dollars in increased profits for multinationals in some ideal future, decades from now.
Is this what it is then? this "war"? And since when is shooting fish in a barrel - mind you with unmanned drones, perhaps remote controlled like video games and toys - called a war? And since is war anything but heinous? And why is "terrorism" or regressivism or even fundamentalism, a war and not a crime???
We will be reminded to this date no effort has been made to capture the big kahunas of terrorism organizations.
You want to tell us, a consortium of the most powerful nation states in the world cannot go in and do a house to house sweep until all fugitives are held?
What , you can't bribe the tribes with millions of dollars and services?
You know this Laden guy is not a good man. He is neither a saint, nor a holy man nor a scholar of any authority .
I find it patently unacceotable that any of the tribes would give him shelter for so long. What would be their motivation? Sorry , traditional generosity and oath of protection of guests, just doesn't cut it today. I am not buying it.
If someone wants to be my guest and then he brings down a world war on my head, sorry but I would ask them to leave. I don't care if I were Godfearing or mother theresa . I would ask them to leave.
Hence the adage, "Something stinks". nearly quite literally, quoth the bard Shakespeare, "something stinks in denmark" . [Actually the quote "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark"]
Not to mention that the tactics of the so-called insurgents themselves are in stark violation of tribal and religious mores.
It is clear then, that either the Laden nexus is a rank illusion , or that the nexus is itself part of the bloody colonialist machinery.
I take this as the most plausible.
Meanwhile this enormous lie is used to justify the murder of children and innocents every day from the air by unmanned drones.
The depths of criminality and cowardice in the above sentence are staggering.
it therefore that we must say again:
It is necessary to save the children and to save freedom and the right to live and the right to be a poor Muslim in a dust bowl village. ... Read more
It behooves the civilized world to take action to stop this impunity, and stop such bleeding.
Mind you , this leaves as "civilized world" only some of the nations of the Non-Aligned movement (it still exists, if they want it). [note: they are civilized rather in their ethical compass though less so in their civic habits :) ]
The murder of children for attending a school to study the Qur'an serves none of the stated purposes of the perpetrators, though it may serve rather sinister unstated ones. It smacks of a religious genocide here, or at best an attempt to uproot natural vectors of a religion's history and sociological trends by lethal force , by martial force, by the unconscionable instrument of war.
We should have seen by now that attempts to tinker with nature, to alter a naturally evolved path has terrible consequences. Due to our ignorance of what we're pretending to understand and presuming to alter , it disrupts the whole system and sends natural equilibria into disarray.
Those actions are not justifiable on religious grounds, because the initial effort to even closely understand the "other" (the target of hostility) has not even yet begun. It has been rejected not on lack of intellectual or spiritual merit, but on zealous prejudice, and a priori rejection.
It is an action motivated at the base by concerns of financial and ethnocultural supremacy.
I think dollar to dollar, we could calculate that erradication of religiosity in a tribal country that translates into a stemming of anti-colonial intellectual and political activity among muslims at large, or at best an altering in muslim mainstream dogma that would be more amenable to presentday neoliberal economic beleifs could ultimately translate into a few millions more dollars in increased profits for multinationals in some ideal future, decades from now.
Is this what it is then? this "war"? And since when is shooting fish in a barrel - mind you with unmanned drones, perhaps remote controlled like video games and toys - called a war? And since is war anything but heinous? And why is "terrorism" or regressivism or even fundamentalism, a war and not a crime???
We will be reminded to this date no effort has been made to capture the big kahunas of terrorism organizations.
You want to tell us, a consortium of the most powerful nation states in the world cannot go in and do a house to house sweep until all fugitives are held?
What , you can't bribe the tribes with millions of dollars and services?
You know this Laden guy is not a good man. He is neither a saint, nor a holy man nor a scholar of any authority .
I find it patently unacceotable that any of the tribes would give him shelter for so long. What would be their motivation? Sorry , traditional generosity and oath of protection of guests, just doesn't cut it today. I am not buying it.
If someone wants to be my guest and then he brings down a world war on my head, sorry but I would ask them to leave. I don't care if I were Godfearing or mother theresa . I would ask them to leave.
Hence the adage, "Something stinks". nearly quite literally, quoth the bard Shakespeare, "something stinks in denmark" . [Actually the quote "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark"]
Not to mention that the tactics of the so-called insurgents themselves are in stark violation of tribal and religious mores.
It is clear then, that either the Laden nexus is a rank illusion , or that the nexus is itself part of the bloody colonialist machinery.
I take this as the most plausible.
Meanwhile this enormous lie is used to justify the murder of children and innocents every day from the air by unmanned drones.
The depths of criminality and cowardice in the above sentence are staggering.
it therefore that we must say again:
It is necessary to save the children and to save freedom and the right to live and the right to be a poor Muslim in a dust bowl village. ... Read more
22 October 2008
life imitating art
I recall the real life images that seem to have provided the direct inspiration to some of herge's cases.
But here is an example of something that seems to take after his art,
The pictures show a research submarine drone and its designer. Details can be found here.
For images showing where some of Hergé's cases imitated life, we have,
"Hergé sous influence !"
and from the excellent site À la découverte de Tintin,
"Le case German Research in World War II"
A picture very similar to the Karaboudjan, here,
... Read more
But here is an example of something that seems to take after his art,
The pictures show a research submarine drone and its designer. Details can be found here.
For images showing where some of Hergé's cases imitated life, we have,
"Hergé sous influence !"
and from the excellent site À la découverte de Tintin,
"Le case German Research in World War II"
A picture very similar to the Karaboudjan, here,
... Read more
16 October 2008
Film revu draft: Cloverfield
Reviewing this one from the makers of 'LOST' need not take a lot of writing. All I have to say is:
OMFG , they're pimping 9/11 !!! ... Read more
OMFG , they're pimping 9/11 !!! ... Read more
