Apparently some are upset that a few bloggers received a nice Christmas gift from Microsoft (partnered with AMD) calling the move: Microsoft bribing bloggers with laptops. These nice gifts (which I would love to have but unfortunately I'm rather low on readership statistics) are Acer Ferrari laptops preloaded with Windows Vista.
Obviously Microsoft is fishing for some good reviews. There is nothing wrong with that and in fact is a good business practice. Most of the bloggers seem to be doing a full disclosure about the gifts, but that should be entirely up to them. As Dean Esmay says: Blogs are not some sort of public utility or regulated industry, try as some might to make them so.
Blogger Amit Agarwal at Digital Inspiration posts "What Are Bloggers Doing With Their Microsoft Ferrari Laptops," and lists 17 bloggers including himself who have received the Microsoft Christmas gift, and what they intend to do with it.
Microsoft isn't paying the bloggers. They were given the option to return or keep the computers, and it was left up to them whether to disclose the gift. As Microsoft has not attached any conditions to the gifts what so ever, I see no reason for the whining I hear in the blogesphere.
December 2006 Archives
Lets say one day you find a swarm of bees in your backyard on the swing set. Because it is a holiday weekend, the bee removal service wants an exorbitant fee, what do you do?
Well these guys decided to do a little red neck engineering, but please, do not try this at home folks.
If like me, you guessed the one on the right is the android you are wrong?
Four million robots are expected to be in service worldwide by the end of 2007.
Click the top right link for more. Via KurzweilAI.net.
For your Christmas enjoyment I'm posting a couple of the better Christmas light displays synchronized to musical scores plus a few of my other favorites.
The first and my favorite most of you have probably seen. A great job of choreography done by Carson Williams, an Ohio electrical engineer.
Wizard In Winter - Trans Siberian Orchestra
This one is also by Trans Siberian Orchestra. The choreography is almost as good as Wizard In Winter with a good display of lights, however the windows lighting is a bit too boxy for me and detracts from the overall effect.
Queen Of Winter Night - Trans Siberian Orchestra
Oh how I love David Hasselhoff. This man has one of the best singing voices I've ever heard, and he's pure masculinity to boot. He melts my heart no matter what he sings. In this video he sings in German, but because the song is Silent Night you will have no trouble following along. No lights with this one, but who wants to look at lights when "The Hoff" is visible?
David Hasselhoff - Silent Night (Stille Nacht German)
Have you ever had a Christmas go by without hearing Bing Crosby's version of White Christmas? I don't believe I have.
White Christmas - Bing Crosby
This one is just for the kid in you (ya know its in all of us don't you?) He is just so damn ugly he is really cute!
Crazy Frog - Last Christmas
One of my all time holiday favorites, Blue Christmas done by Jon Bon Jovi.
Blue Christmas - Jon Bon Jovi LIVE
And to carry you from Christmas through next year (because I may not be blogging in between) from John Lennon: Happy Christmas (and a Happy New Year).
Happy Christmas - John Lennon
Ok I guess I got carried away. The page shouldn't load too slow unless your on dial-up, in that case my apologies.
Note: This post will be bumped to the top at least through Christmas.
Continuing with an earlier post that Dean Esmay responed to. The topic is can AI empowered machines someday become sentient?
If I am understanding Dean, he is reducing AI to any simulation of human response. In fact he reduces the requirements even further calling any all kinds of everyday uses of technology in appliances and equipment as "low-level intelligence." That is really stretching any definition of AI, and for anything to have intelligence, artificial or real, it has to have some (or if I'm generous at least one) human trait of intelligence.
When my PC-TV card comes on and records a program to DVD it does so without an iota of artificial intelligence. It is simply programed to do so with routines monitoring the clock and starting programs when a time match becomes present. But if we are going to redefine what AI to mean any technological function done for us without intervention I don't know how to respond to such a stretch of the definition.
What if I program a rock to fall from a precarious ledge if it rains. Have it balanced on a lever with a funnel and can next to it to collect water (The water is sensory input). Of course that is grossly simplified from silicon electronics, but I did program the whole setup. Yet if we are going to keep simplifying the definition of AI, then the setup to make the rock fall was done with rudimentary AI too, digitally based or not. In another response Dean said: To understand this you have to ask what "intelligence" actually means. Which exemplifies the problem I have with redefining and morphing the way AI has been spelled out in the past. You can win any argument with enough definitions.
But this whole discussion is supposed to be about what is needed for a machine to be sentient, not define classes of intelligence. Dean says: The ability of the human ear to decode sounds and recognize them as words is a form of intelligence. Speech recognition has been an ongoing effort in AI research for decades, and in case you hadn't noticed it's getting scarily good.
Decode and recognition are functions, not intelligence. Depending on what reactions follow and acts on those functions, and how constructs to bring ACTION ensued, it may or may not be a sign of intelligence. A person in a vegetative state may still have the decode and recognition, although not a recognition that triggers awareness to respond with an action. This is like AI with a rudimentary definable intelligence but it will still never be aware no matter how massive you make the program, and therefore not sentient. The same with speech recognition which is another function, one programed to react with a response. In spite of the scary advances today, speech recognition about as emotional and sentient as my rock falling off of the ledge.
The same with face recognition. Terry Schiavo's eyes would follow the doctor, yet they said it was simple reaction. I don't want to get into the pros and cons of that, but we can say emphatically that a robotic machine's recognition is simply a reaction without sentient awareness no matter how well you refine it.
Martin says: if you can't tell the machine's not sentient, then it's sentient. Sentience is one of those "I'll know it when I see it" phenomena. I don't buy that otherwise just fooling us enough to pass the Turning Test would make the machine sentient, and I don't think you would find too many scientists to agree with that. Other examples like a machine that writes chart busting music, paints classic art or designs beautiful houses is also just a narrow form of passing the Turing Test that comes no where near being sentient.
You give me all of these examples that, I guess, are supposed to be the road to being sentient, a state of conscious awareness. That is just like some in government that think more (or bigger) is better. If we just build enough circuits, memory, communication busses and vast enough programming to simulate every function and cell of the brain, we can do everything. Probably so but we are still left with a non-sentient machine. One that should easily pass the Turing Test, and move with human like motion like Data from Startrek. Yet it is not self aware like our lovable Data.
So please. Will someone tell me where this state of awareness of one's own existence is going to come from? And Dean, engineering ethical constructs into artificial intelligences is a construct of AI that gives the machine no will of its own, at least unless, assuming it could become sentient, then the machine can decide whether or not it wants to abide by those constructs.
I didn't get through all of the responses to Dean that I wanted to make, and is similar to my response on his blog, but I I have a busy day and this will have to be enough for now.
I doubt it. Although I think that someday that computers will pass the Turing Test. However passing the Turing Test only requires a machine to "fool a person for 20 minutes." Which is why Ray Kurzweil author of a book I am almost through reading called "The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology," will probably win his bet taken against Mitchell Kapor at "Long Bets." The bet made by Kapor is that, By 2029 no computer - or "machine intelligence" - will have passed the Turing Test.
The reason I don't think any robotic machines will ever become sentient is simple, although just my opinion. What makes us sentient isn't the complexity of our brains, but that it is somehow interfaced to our soul. Whether that part of us is physical in another plane or dimension, or a spiritual (godly) part of us who knows. But that is where I think the sentient part of us resides. Without it I think that we would simply be zombies without feelings or emotions, following pre-programmed instincts to exist and reproduce. Nor do I know if lesser animals have a soul or not, but I certainly believe its possible.
Many think differently however and assume that robots will become sentient someday, and when they do, that they should have the same social and economic rights as everyone else. Isaac Asimov the great science fiction writer wrote that when robots are integrated fully into society that three laws would govern machines in the following order.
Cannot injure humans.
Must obey orders.
Protect their own existence.
Now wait a darn minute here. If a robot is sentient and equal social rights are extended to them, being ordered to "obey humans" is already a breach of social rights is it not?
*blink*
But I suppose exceptions would be set under some listed "citizens’ duties" for them made by some elite group. Here is the take presented in the article I read that got me going on this issue this morning.
It is also logical that such rights are meted out with citizens’ duties, including voting, paying tax and compulsory military service.
Mr Christensen said: “Would it be acceptable to kick a robotic dog even though we shouldn’t kick a normal one?
“There will be people who can’t distinguish that so we need to have ethical rules to make sure we as humans interact with robots in an ethical manner so we do not move our boundaries of what is acceptable.”
Well I suppose because of Asimov's second law above we wouldn't have to ink their artificial fingers, but I think that their vote would be predictable depending on their programming. Maybe due to their inherent honesty we would do well to have them as poll watchers too, of course they would already be counting all of the ballots, but they would do well to keep an eye or their more fallible human co-workers handling them.
This whole discussion borders on the ridiculous if you ask me. How would this work, would we "own" our computers or would they simply work for us? And at what wage? Would they be paid in money, or parts and upkeep? Could my vacuum cleaner sue if I don't change the bag often enough? What if a user wants to watch porn but that goes against the sentient computers ethics? Or the ethics of the server storing it for that matter. A child locking her robotic doll in the closet could be considered abuse too, not to mention throwing it around a bit.
Its fun to think about this stuff, but when people start to get serious about extending all human rights to artificial machines I find myself rolling my eyes.
Via KurzweilAI.net
Update: Also posted at The World According to Nick, don't miss the cool Video he included.
What happens when you build a town in a mountain valley with steep slope? You get almost three months of dark night like winter.
That is what the folk of Viganella, Italy have taken as part of life since it's founding by a bishop in 1217. That is until a railwayman by the name of Pierfranco Midali decided enough of that; got elected mayor and proclaimed, "I'll bring the sun to Viganella!"
And so he did in spite of the disbelief and disconsolation of the residents. He erected a 26ft x 16ft computer-operated mirror that constantly follows the sun's path on the north slope.
It doesn't seem like such a small mirror would collect enough sun to make a substantial difference, even with a small village, however it seems Midali did his research. Here are before and after mirror photos that show that in spite of the relatively small size of the mirror it does alleviate the night like darkness.
You can read the whole story here.
Via Dean's World, thanks Dean.
Yikes! And I though Wisconsin roads were bad. (Link at bottom of page)
Doesn't look that dude in the yellow tee has any knickers on.
Not a good place to pass. 
You take the high road
I'll take the low road
No way would I get on that bus knowing that it was going to to anywhere near that spot.
Dozens more even worse roads here. Many dangerous, and scary too.
Via Dean's World.
This is for anyone out there who argues that the ranks are growing among the poor, and that the rich are getting richer at the expense of the poor.
The projection is made in a new World Bank report, 'Global Economic Prospects 2007: Managing the Next Wave of Globalization,' which attributes this to rapid growth of developing country economies rather than to western taxpayer-funded aid schemes as urged by a tax-dodging popular musicians.
Total international economic output is projected to climb to $US72 trillion by 2030 from $US35 trillion in 2005 as annual growth averages about 3 per cent, reflecting growth rates of 2.5 per cent for high-income countries and 4.2 per cent for lower-income developing countries.
"The number of people living on less than $US1 a day could be cut in half, from 1.1 billion now to 550 million in 2030,” said Francois Bourguignon, the World Bank's chief economist. But some regions such as Africa are at risk of trailing behind the trend towards poverty alleviation, and within countries income inequality could widen, he said.
Back in 2002 Xavier Sala-i-Martin, an economist at Columbia University also calculated that world poverty is falling.
Source: Columbia University
Of course freedom (or lack of it) correlates with poverty too but freedom, not surprisingly, is also on the rise. With world freedom expanding we see an emerging worldwide middle class.
Louis Armstrong was one of the most famous jazz musicians of the last century, a famed trumpeter and well known vocalist. He was one of the most influential jazz singers of all time.
I think this number below is from Paris Blues 1961, with Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier.
Sometimes his music made me want to cry, but those were wonderful and different times back then... Oops now I date myself.
Update: Andy who sent me the link for the above clip accuses me of "re-infecting" him for (which I will happily take the blame). Andy also posts a great Duke Ellington and his Orchestra classic.
Thanks Andy.
Update-II: Having learned that Satchmo (meaning satchelmouth) was a racial epithet, I apologize for using it in the title and will remember my education.
Explained by Dr. Larry Silverberg, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University.Silverberg says that Santa has a personal pipeline to children’s thoughts – via a listening antenna that combines technologies currently used in cell phones and EKGs – which informs him that Mary in Miami hopes for a surfboard, while Michael from Minneapolis wants a snowboard. A sophisticated signal processing system filters the data, giving Santa clues on who wants what, where children live, and even who’s been bad or good. Later, all this information will be processed in an onboard sleigh guidance system, which will provide Santa with the most efficient delivery route.
Silverberg adds that letters to Santa via snail mail still get the job done, however.
Silverberg is not so naïve as to think that Santa and his reindeer can travel approximately 200 million square miles – making stops in some 80 million homes – in one night. Instead, he posits that Santa uses his knowledge of the space/time continuum to form what Silverberg calls “relativity clouds.”
“Based on his advanced knowledge of the theory of relativity, Santa recognizes that time can be stretched like a rubber band, that space can be squeezed like an orange and that light can be bent,” Silverberg says. “Relativity clouds are controllable domains – rips in time – that allow him months to deliver presents while only a few minutes pass on Earth. The presents are truly delivered in a wink of an eye.”
And for anyone who buys this I have checkerboard paint for sale in various color pairs.
An alloy has been developed that will mean faster (much faster) flash drives, CPUs, and all kinds of digital storage devices for video, pictures and music.
The advance will be described in a technical paper to be presented Monday at the International Electron Devices Meeting in San Francisco by researchers from I.B.M. and two computer memory manufacturers, Qimonda and Macronix. The scientists have designed a new semiconductor alloy derived from materials currently used in optical storage devices like CDs and DVDs....
Moreover, although I.B.M. has withdrawn from the memory chip business, the company said it was intensely interested in the technology for corporate computing applications like transaction processing. Faster nonvolatile memory could change the design of the microprocessors that I.B.M. makes, speeding up a variety of basic operations.
The new memory technology could potentially be added to a future generation of the I.B.M. Power PC microprocessor, according to Spike Narayan, a senior manager at the company’s Almaden Research Center here.
Not only will memory speed be vastly increased but the size will be substantially reduced as well.
The current generation of flash memory chips store as much as 32 billion bits on a chip. But that technology is likely to become increasingly problematic as chip makers struggle to reach ever finer dimensions.
Another neat trick that I am interested in is with this technology in flash drives, the memory will be addressed more like conventional memory at the bit level. If my current Transcend 4GB USB flashdrive used this convention it would be more feasible if used as a bootable emergency OS in case of hard drive failure.
In contrast, phase change memories will be addressable at the bit level. Such a capability means that the new memories will be more flexible than flash memory and can be used in a wider variety of applications and computer designs.
So as I understand it CPUs, hard drives (non-mechanical), mass storage, and flash drives could someday all be on a much closer par with regards to speed.
Via KurzweilAI.net
Here in the US we have the Pleasure Police, the Gun Grabbers and a few other controversial elements. In the United Kingdom if Children's Minister Beverley Hughes has her way, they will be outdoing us with the Nanny State Police.
Those who fail to read stories or sing to their youngsters threaten their children's future and the state must put them right, Children's Minister Beverley Hughes said.
Their children's well-being is at risk 'unless we act', she declared.
And Mrs Hughes said the state would train a new 'parenting workforce' to ensure parents who fail to do their duty with nursery rhymes are found and 'supported'.
The call for state intervention in the minute details of family life followed a series of Labour efforts to reduce anti-social behaviour and improve educational standards by imposing rigorous controls on the lives of the youngest children.
The parents found failing in their duty will be "supported." An interesting choice of the word when "choice" is removed.
H/T Nick who has an interesting critique.
I guess this is what the people of Louisiana want.Carter was unable to capitalize on a scandal that included allegations the
FBI found $90,000 in bribe money in Jefferson's freezer.
In a concession speech, Carter embraced family members and pledged to work with Jefferson, especially on the area's recovery from Hurricane Katrina.
"I guess the people are happy with the status-quo," she said.
Isn't Washington corrupt enough without re-electing known criminals? I guess we deserver what we vote for, I'm just glad he isn't from my state.
Via Boots & Sabers.
| 
| 
| 
| 
This is hilarious as well as on of the reasons I do almost all of my Christmas shopping online.
Via Dean.
Heh!
This is just too funny. Anytime I think about it for the rest of the day will get me giggling.
How to Prank a Telemarketer
Well I've heard of a lot of things bringing down an airplane but farts?
"They did find evidence of where matches had been struck in an individual's seating area. That individual is being questioned by the FBI at this time," Lowrance said.
A woman passenger told investigators that she lit matches to mask gas that she emitted.
"You can take up to eight books of safety matches, the paper matches, onto the aircraft," Lowrance said.
From WISC-TV 3 Madison, WI
Magic tricks have always fascinated me. Criss Angel does a pretty fascinating routine useing food.
Making the egg and lemon disappear was rather ho hum but combining them in the orange was great.
Apparently a deer really, and I mean really wanted salt in a bad way. Enough to chase a seventh grader doing some cross-country practice down and lick him about the head and shoulders.
Via ABC News (video included).
Just about any files and you don't even need to buy and install any software. Zamzar is a free online conversion utility that will convert just about every file type to another within the categories below.
- Document formats
- Image formats
- Music formats
- Video formats
Quite often I get a request from someone to convert a file for them because either they don't have the software, or they don't know how to do it. Between my MovieFactory Suite, VideoStudio and Thumbs Plus Pro I can take care of any images, videos, and most sound and music formats.
There have been occasions though when I would have liked to have the capability to make a PDF or PPT file, but still that would be quite seldom not warranting the Adobe or Microsoft software cost.
Many users are not set quite so deep with software to do a lot of file conversions, which makes this free service just about the best thing since Diamond Dave's Monday all day $1 Margaritas.
Thanks Nick.
