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Slashback: ASIMO History, CSIRO WiFi, Net Neutrality 87

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the putting-the-internet-in-neutral-and-coasting dept.
Slashback tonight brings some corrections, clarifications, and updates to previous Slashdot stories, including a short history of Honda's ASIMO. Also, Intel bows out of the embedded processor market, Microsoft's USB giveaway fizzles, CSIRO gets close to a WiFi win, lawmakers target MySpace again, and the New York Times weighs in on net neutrality. Read on for details.

A Short history of Honda's ASIMO. Ant writes to tell us that Honda has posted a short overview of the evolution leading up to the ASIMO. The history showcases the progress Honda has made in robotics over the last 20 years. It contains drawings, photographs, specifications, and other information about each prototype.

Intel bows out of the embedded processor market. markrages writes "Embedded.com is reporting Intel is withdrawing from the embedded processor market. From the article: 'The company will stop producing the 8051, 251, 8096/196, 188/186, i960, all versions of the 386 (including the 386EX) and 486.'" The product change notification is also available from Intel's site.

Microsoft USB giveaway fizzles. An anonymous reader writes "If you thought you could get something for nothing from Microsoft. Think again. NetworkWorld is reporting that Microsoft is backing down from the free USB drive marketing promotion they launched last February."

CSIRO close to WiFi win. Trapped Database Adm writes "Australian IT reports that Leonard Davis of the U.S. District Court for the eastern district of Texas issued a Markman opinion, providing 'strong support for CSIRO's position in its patent infringement test case.'" From the article: "The CSIRO claims its patent relates to several wireless standards, and the technology covered by its patent is a standard feature of most notebook computers and many other devices. Many technology companies are refusing to pay up, however."

Lawmakers target MySpace again. ardyng writes "It appears Congressman Michael G. Fitzpatrick,(R-Penn) has introduced a bill to the U.S. House of Representatives that would ban minors from accessing social networking websites such as Myspace, as well as any site that 'allows users to create web pages or profiles that provide information about themselves and are available to other users; and offers a mechanism for communication with other users, such as a forum, chat room, email, or instant messenger. The Bill, H.R. 5319, also known as the 'Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006', is still in its infancy, but in its current form, would forbid libraries from allowing access to such sites as well." (That description would also include the site you're reading now.)

New York Times weighs in on net neutrality. KarmaOverDogma writes "The New York Times' Adam Cohen provides an argument in favor of neutrality on the World Wide Web. Cohen succinctly provides a brief history of the World Wide Web, its creator Tim Berners-Lee's vision of how it should operate, why he designed that way, and the forces moving to create a tiered pricing system of access. From stifling creativity and competition to free speech and innovation, Cohen shows why strange bedfellows have come to favor enforcing the 'Democratic Ethic' of the internet by Legislation."

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Slashback: ASIMO History, CSIRO WiFi, Net Neutrality More

Slashback: ASIMO History, CSIRO WiFi, Net Neutrality

Comments Filter:

  • XScale (Score:2, Informative)

    by JanusFury ( 452699 )
    Isn't the XScale also an Intel embedded processor?
  • I have always wondered if ASIMO's name was a nod to Asimov and his robotics books...
  • Myspace is to today as AOL Chatrooms were to the 90's. All the hip pedophiles use MySpace.
    • Go after paedophiles, gag all the paeds.
      Yeah, makes sense.

      KFG

      • Re:"Lawmakers target MySpace again." (Score:1, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        First they came for the pedophiles and I said nothing because I wasn't a pedophile.
        Then they came for the terrorists and I said nothing because I wasn't a terrorist.
        When they finally came for me, I aghlr ry jmh vmtlkj ryhvmj
    • Myspace is to today as AOL Chatrooms were to the 90's. All the hip pedophiles use MySpace.

      You are absolutely correct. Pedophiles definately use MySpace. They also use the carpool lane, the grocery store, a knife every time they want to chop lettuce and even a voting booth from time to time. The sooner we ban all these things the safer our precious children will be.

      TW
      • Subject line aside, the (rough) equivalents of this using your examples would be:

        No driving in the carpool lane when you have a child in the car, as pedophiles may see them.
        Children may not go to the grocery store where pedophiles may see them.
        No using a knife when there is a child in the room. (a bit harder as a knife is not a place).
        Children may not be in tow when going to vote as pedophiles might see them.

  • Solution... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by informatico ( 978356 ) on Wednesday May 31, 2006 @08:06PM (#15440544) Homepage Journal
    "The Bill, H.R. 5319, also known as the 'Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006', is still in its infancy, but in its current form, would forbid libraries from allowing access to such sites as well."

    The solution is to force these politians to take vacation 360 out of 365 days of the year to limit the damage and stupidity caused.
    • Yeah, but at least the bill title isn't an acronym. I was beginning to think that the House rules no longer allowed the intial letters of the words in the title not to spell something.
    • The solution is to force these politians to take vacation 360 out of 365 days of the year to limit the damage and stupidity caused.

      Reminds me of the first reply in this best of usnet oracle digest [indiana.edu]. Adapt for congress critter and enjoy.

    • Re:Solution... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Xyrus ( 755017 )
      Even better, we should pay them to not do anything at all. At this point, it's better.

      Maybe that's what they really want, so they're purposely screwing things up to the point we just say, "Here, take the money! I don't care! Just don't do anything!"

      We pay farmers not to grow, why can't we pay congress to NOT legislate?

      ~X~
    • Seriously, I know there are bad people in the world. I really have to ask, though, how many child predators and pornographers are there? It seems everything is about stopping child pornography and people who prey on children. Just how prevalent is this?

      I have to wonder if politicians are creating bogeys so they can take more control. Video games are making kids violent so we have to control them. The fact that there's no evidence for it is just a technicality. This intarweb thing makes kids vulnera
      • According to this [reuters.com] there are enough in the Netherlands to make a political party.
      • Seriously, I know there are bad people in the world. I really have to ask, though, how many child predators and pornographers are there? It seems everything is about stopping child pornography and people who prey on children. Just how prevalent is this?

        According to NBC's "To Catch a Predator" [msn.com], about 10 per square foot.

        Although I agree with you. Stop trying to raise my kid for me.

    • The solution is to force these politians to take vacation 360 out of 365 days of the year to limit the damage and stupidity caused.

      What do you think they do now? Your average congrescritter spends most of his or her time campaigning, travelling to Iraq (big with voters, see "campaigning"), taking trips to speak or attend meetings (paid for by lobbyists), and so on. Governors like to do it too- the governor of MA, Mitt Romney, has practically been out of office more than he has been in, because he's so b

    • Coming up next, the "Deleting Rapists Act of 2007" specifying a 7pm curfew for all females and stating that they must cover their heads and faces with scarves in public and wear non-provocative robes that disguise the shape of their body.

  • They aren't leaving - XScale is the future (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Bruce Perens ( 3872 ) * <bruce@perens.com> on Wednesday May 31, 2006 @08:08PM (#15440560) Homepage Journal
    If Intel is still making XScale, they are hardly leaving the embedded market. They are just discontinuing processors that these days aren't worth the silicon, commodity low-margin products that other companies make well.

    Bruce

  • That description would also include the site you're reading now.

    Hey! How do you know what website I'm reading right now?

    Oh. Right.

  • Banning mnors from social networking sites.. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by whoever57 ( 658626 ) on Wednesday May 31, 2006 @08:09PM (#15440571) Journal
    If minors are prohibited, how does one prove one is an adult, and perhaps more importantly, does the information required to prove one is an adult provide yet more ways for one's online activity to be tracked?
    • . . .does the information required to prove one is an adult provide yet more ways for one's online activity to be tracked?

      Isn't that the point?

      KFG
    • There is absolutely no information you can enter that someone else can't.I'm sure most kids (who want to) have ALL their parents' credit card numbers written down somewhere - and many have probably been asked to use them for online ordering.
    • If minors are prohibited, how does one prove one is an adult, and perhaps more importantly, does the information required to prove one is an adult ...

      They are going to try to make sites like Wikipedia hard to use, that's the point. Big publishers like the NYT probably don't like the fact that more people visit Wikipedia than them by a large margin. The old TV and radio empire is striking back. They can't compete so they are going to make laws to protect themselves. Netcraft Site Ranking [netcraft.com], today wikiped

  • From Tim Berners Lee (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Rick Zeman ( 15628 ) on Wednesday May 31, 2006 @08:15PM (#15440621)
    "That's not what we call Internet at all," says Sir Tim. "That's what we call cable TV."

    Beautiful line, and summed up so even a politco could understand it.
    • politico: Cable TV is good, the consume^Wcitizens sit there passively absorbing everything that we can feed to them - just gotta make sure we retain sufficient control over the big media

      politico: Hey, this intarweb thing can be used for subversive anti-government messages! Lets make it more like cable TV!

  • Anti Social Networks (Score:5, Insightful)

    by packetmon ( 977047 ) on Wednesday May 31, 2006 @08:17PM (#15440626) Homepage
    I'd like to see a law introduced to combat AntiSocial Networks. You know the ones where the parents don't want to take responsibilities for the actions of their kids they don't bother monitoring...

    The NEW bill, known as the "How About You Pay Attention to What Your Kids Are Doing" would be introduced into congress immediately.

    The bill would use direct as a matter of fact language to define a "getting to know what your kids are doing on the web", which would theoretically force parents to stop making bad decisions and pay more attention to their families.

    "Sites like Myspace and Facebook have opened the door to a new online community of social networks between friends, students and colleagues," "However, this new technology has become a feeding ground for child predators that use these sites as just another way to do our children harm." As stated by a congressman. However, "children under age should not be left alone to use a computer unmonitored. There are plenty of programs available to curtail things from happening. It seems parents don't want to face their responsibilities..." stated packetmon.
    • . . .the ones where the parents don't want to take responsibilities for the actions of their kids they don't bother monitoring...

      Just hire a private dick to follow them around.

      Ummmmmm, maybe I could have phrased that differently.

      KFG
    • I agree that parents often don't pay enough attention to what their kids do on the Internet. But I would argue that it's often not possible for them to do that. Web filtering software is easily gotten around if you know enough, besides which there is simply too much out there to be able to keep track of it all using any kind of blacklist (which is, let's face it, the easiest method for ignorant* parents to understand, and therefore probably the method they're most likely to invest in). Failing the software
      • Why do parents have to try and be 'reactive' and block websites that are questionable, I believe that for underage children they should only have access to websites that the parents have previosly deemed acceptable ala 'white list'. Children do not require unfetted access to the web and I do not see any problem with placing the burden of approving content on the parents.
        • Whitelisting is a better idea than blacklisting, certainly. And parents (usually) know better than most what their child should be allowed to see. But once again, ignorance is the child's enemy, especially if parents don't do their homework when working on a white list, either because they're too busy, or they have more faith in the software than it deserves due to its inherent limitations. For example, kid asks parent "Can you unblock HotKiddies.com for me?" Parent goes "Sure" and proceeds to whitelist it,
  • It's important to point out that the bill in question, H.R. 5319 [loc.gov], would not ban minors from social networking sites, as the article implies. In fact, it only requires schools and libraries to take steps to make sure that commercial social networking sites are banned. (Yes, yes, it's still bad - I know of several kids who can only go online at school, and I will be writing to my representative if this appears to be going anywhere, even though/because I am a minor.)

    If you're interested, schools and libraries
    • Right, so all the pedophiles need to do is set up a non-profit website for ensnaring children. The law is obviously aimed directly at MySpace and maybe one or two other startup companies that have not donated to the bill sponsers' campaigns, and not at the actual problem at hand. No doubt the description is carefully written not to include MSN and other established companies.
  • 'Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006' are you kidding me? How about just 'Deleting everything Online Act of 2006' This bill is FAR too broad? How many websites have a forum? Just about all.
  • Microsoft sent me an e-mail a couple of days ago saying that the offer was available "while supplies last" and intimated that I got in too late, pointing me instead to an online location containing the documents that would have been on the drive. I thought I'd heard of someone getting their drive, but maybe not.

  • ASIMO videos (Score:3, Informative)

    by Ankur Dave ( 929048 ) <ankurdave+slashdot@gmail.com> on Wednesday May 31, 2006 @08:42PM (#15440775) Homepage
    Here are the actual videos of ASIMO doing things.
    http://world.honda.com/HDTV/ASIMO/tech-recog-mov-o bj-2/ [honda.com]
    • It's a cultural thing, the Japanese measure how effective a robot is by how polite it can be. They don't actually try to make it do any work. On the other hand, I guess the americans would measure how effective a robot is by how many people it can kill in 5 seconds. So it's not all bad.

    • I could attend a demo of ASIMO in Paris a few years ago. It was truly impressive, even if we couldn't get a demo of the IA. ASIMO was on the stage and performed various walks and movements and went up and down stairs (and it was fully automated since this prototype of ASIMO need to compute something like 20 seconds before going on stairs). The audience was full of kids that were so impressed that we could hear only silence... and laughter when ASIMO made fun of the presenter from Honda that was also on stag
    • While in Japan a few months ago, I was lucky enough to make my way to the Honda museum in Motegi and watch a demo of ASIMO. They also had all the other versions, with a little placard describing each one and its advancements. I was throughly impressed and really wanted to stick around for more. The evolution of the ASIMO is truly quite interesting, and I encourage everyone to take a look (if you already haven't).
      • It is impressive if the goal is "something to gawk at" but if you actually wanna a see a robot doing something useful, go to your local automobile factory. cute-but-useless, what a great thing to waste money on. I hear the current research version of ASIMO will have 2 seperate motors to control its fingers. One for the thumb, one for every other finger. With dexterity like that I would expect it could actually pick up a beer can, although it might be a little heavy for it, so it won't be able to walk wi
        • There is more then just a slight difference between the repetitive motion of an assembly line robot and the algorithms that keep ASIMO from tipping over while running.
          • Yeah, one of them is economically valuable.
            • One of them is straight engineering these days, the other is basic research.

              Eventual progress and future economic value is highly dependent on today's basic research.
              • I'm all for basic research.. I just don't understand why you would put a hand on ASIMO that has less dexterity than the grippers grounds keepers use to pick up cigerette butts. Where's the research in that? I think ASIMO has shown that the time for solely basic research into humanoid robotics is coming to an end. It's time to see what we've got and the best way to do that is to take the best-of-breed technologies and combine them into one robot, then set that robot some tasks that are practical and usefu
            • One of them could grow into alien life we made ourselves.

  • What is Obscene? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Stoned4Life ( 926494 ) on Wednesday May 31, 2006 @08:43PM (#15440783) Homepage
    As far as that bill goes, before deciding that material obscene to minors should be banned, how about we decide _what_ is obscene to minors. Isn't this really a morality issue up to the _parents_ not Big Brother? Material described as obscene and harmful to minors is so disgustingly vague, that anyone can come on and say Microsoft.com is harmful to minors. Let's ban that (yay). I don't want legislators in congress deciding what is and isn't obscene for me.

  • pas trop gouverner! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Quirk ( 36086 ) on Wednesday May 31, 2006 @08:47PM (#15440806) Homepage Journal
    Don't govern too much! IIRC the adage not to govern to much is essential to Adam Smith's doctrine of laissez-faire. And Adam Smith's 'The Wealth of Nations' is the handbook of American business; but now it seems that American law makers on all levels are intent on creating the most annally retentive, overly legislated country in the world. I'm guessing the Salem witch trials are soon due for a revival.

    As a Canadian it appears that Americans are getting all the stick and no carrot. While being gagged and bound by unenforcable laws and taxed to support humongous government the American people go without the social programs and safety nets that coutries like Canada enjoy as a consequence of being over governed.

    In the beginning was Adam Smith and things were OK; then came J.M. Keynes, government programs and a chicken in every pot, followed by J.K. Galbraith and the military industrial complex. What you've got going now I haven't got words for, but, better you than me.

  • NN Mediocre article (Score:3, Insightful)

    by illuminatedwax ( 537131 ) <stdrange@nOsPAm.alumni.uchicago.edu> on Wednesday May 31, 2006 @08:49PM (#15440813) Journal
    What a mediocre article. He could've at least brought up the "double-dipping" nature of the tiered system.
    At least do some better research:

    The blogging phenomenon is possible because individuals can create Web sites with the World Wide Web prefix, www, that can be seen by anyone with Internet access.

    No wonder my site isn't working: I forgot to add the www prefix!!

  • net neutrality (Score:5, Interesting)

    by caudron ( 466327 ) on Wednesday May 31, 2006 @08:58PM (#15440857) Homepage
    I am all about Network Neutrality...the problem is that most of you aren't. There, my shocking intro is out of the way. ;-)

    Seriously though, I'm only half joking. I agree that we must do everything we can to promote the vision of the Web that people like Tim Berners-Lee had at its inception. The problem is that while we want to fight for neutrality in our bandwidth, we are willing to give it up in our protocols.

    For instance, the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) so-called spam solution is being adopted all over the place without nary a complaint. But think about it. Tim Berners-Lee didn't just envision a web of equitable bandwidth, he envisioned a web of peers---a web of end points, all equally valid. What happens when my system is no longer considered a valid end point? Suddenly, we have a network of clients and servers rather than peers. When the SPF process looks to verify that the sender is the one valid smtp server for the mail address' domain (based on either MX or A records), it devalues all non-domain level systems on the web. Peers on the network become clients, fed valid packets from those servers that are approved to pass said packets. The SMTP semantic paradigm moves from Sender>Receiver to Server>Client.

    But no one really cares because there is some belief that this will help reduce spam. It will, but so will turning off our mail clients. Neither is the right solution. The solution is a newer, better mail protocol, many of which have been proposed that DO NOT devalue the peers of the network. Probably one of the better known of the examples is the IM2000 protocol [homepages.tesco.net].

    But we'd rather have a network of tiered rights---as long as our bandwidth is balanced equitably we won't complain, I guess. :-\

    Tom Caudron
    http://tom.digitalelite.com/ [digitalelite.com]

    • For instance, the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) so-called spam solution is being adopted all over the place without nary a complaint.

      Huh? The guy who does the DNS records gets to decide which hosts are allowed to send mail for a particular domain. S/he can break email for that domain in plenty of ways without SPF. And I fail to see how my saying you can't send mail for my domain is breaking the end-to-end model. If you were talking about port 25 blocking, I could agree.

      • The guy who does the DNS records gets to decide which hosts are allowed to send mail for a particular domain.

        Not before SPF.

        Previously, I could run sendmail on my own box and, you know, send mail. I didn't need permission from anyone to have my mail considered equally valid on the net. SPF changes that. It says that only the one "validated" smtp server can send mail and moreover, underlying it is the implicit expectatin that every server on the net should be a paid-for domain, instead of an ip address.

        • It says that only the one "validated" smtp server can send mail

          No, you can specify which hosts plural are allowed to send mail, up to and including all the Internet. And if you want to send your mail from tom@192.168.0.1, there's no way to do a SPF lookup anyway. No-one should be rejecting on lack of an SPF record.

          This is the last SPF record I created, meaning the outgoing mailserver is definitely OK, but anywhere is possible.

          foo.ac.nz. 7200 IN TXT "v=spf1 a:mail.foo.ac.nz ~all"

    • For some reason I think that removing validity from Russian spam boxes is slightly less of an issue than asynchronous connections, which immediately and undeniably remove the peer-to-peer model which was envisioned.

      The inability to upload data at a reasonable speed has much more of a negative effect on the model of the internet than does checking mail servers for validity.

      While this is an excellent point, I'd focus on the more important (and off-topic) issues first.
      • I totally agree that one has more immediate effect, but I just don't want to ignore the other. As William O. Douglas said:

        "As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air - however slight - lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."

        Our ideals are not often destroyed in one great act, but slowly chipped away until the remnant b

  • Banning minors? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by O'Laochdha ( 962474 )
    I could see banning under-13's (who already require parental supervision), but minors? What does a sixteen-year-old have to fear from a pedophile? Even if this passes (oh, Canada!), it's an absurd smoke-and-mirrors measure.
    • A 16 year old would still be at risk from "stalking" (or abduction, or whatever). Many teens on MySpace have enough personal information on there to be easily located by someone with basic detective skills.

      That is probably the counterargument that would be given.

  • An idea (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    also known as the 'Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006'

    I propose the Kill All The Politicians Who Think Up These Fucking Stupid Slogans Disguised As Bill Names Because It Doesn't Make Them Big, It Doesn't Make Them Clever And It Doesn't Make Them Caring, It Just Makes Them Opportunistic Scum Act of 2006.

    Also known as the I propose the KATPWTUTFSSDABN,BIDMTB,IDMTC,AIDMTC,IJMTOS Act, for short.

  • Why not ban kids from going outside? Let's make sure they can't open their text books either because some bad author might have written some rude words!

    You can protect kids as much as you want, but they'll still have to deal with it at some stage.

    I was a kid on the 'net. Fortunatly I was more into the technical side of the net than chatrooms, but my point is that you'd be blocking most of the potential good that kids get out of the internet too.
  • Wow uhhhh... the response from you guys has been OVERWHELMING... UNPRECEDENTED really... just WOW! And ummm... yeah, ya know, the economy has been kinda harsh lately and times are hard for everyone these days so ummmm... sorry, we just can't send you those USB drives we promised. Sorry.

    Okay, now next on the agenda... what should we do with this $35 Billion cash burning a hole in our pockets? Any suggestions?

  • Someone else said it in another post: Cable TV. Specifially: The Shopping Network. Web sites would be nothing much more than electronic brochures for companies that want you to buy their wares. Corporations show you their goods on a web site. You contact them and buy their stuff. Any interaction with a web site would be limited to filling out a form with enough information that the company's sales force would know how to reach you. Ultimately, there would be none of that electronic sales folderol allowed v

    • Ultimately, there would be none of that electronic sales folderol allowed via the Internet.

      And only a few special companies would be able to lease your site to you.

      Some people can't wait until running and contributing to wikipedia or slashdot is as difficult as porn is. Total Suck.

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