Comment Smear up that display! (Score 1) 109
If you reflect: the new Virtual Island
is really the Old Home Button - except now with Fingerprints!
Progress/not progress.
Comment Of course... (Score 1) 63
Damn it. I just cleaned out the old supply closet and tossed my old FlightStick Pro.
It is an impressive piece of rugged hardware but even if I had a modern flight simulator I'm not sure how I would plug it in these days. Time has not been kind to 15 pin D-connector serial ports.
Comment A link to the original article... (Score 1) 77
It may be paywalled but that's never stopped
Nvidia Uses AI To Render Virtual Worlds In Real Time (tomshardware.com) 44
Nvidia is using artificial intelligence to draw new worlds without using traditional modeling techniques or graphics rendering engines. "This new technology uses an AI deep neural network to analyze existing videos and then apply the visual elements to new 3D environments," reports Tom's Hardware. From the report: Nvidia claims this new technology could provide a revolutionary step forward in creating 3D worlds because the AI models are trained from video to automatically render buildings, trees, vehicles, and objects into new 3D worlds, instead of requiring the normal painstaking process of modeling the scene elements. But the project is still a work in progress. As we can see from [this image], which was generated in real time on a Nvidia Titan V graphics card using its Tensor cores, the rendered scene isn't as crisp as we would expect in real life, and it isn't as clear as we would expect with a normal modeled scene in a 3D environment. However, the result is much more impressive when we see the real-time output in [this YouTube video]. The key here is speed: The AI generates these scenes in real time.
Comment Certain you want to use those words? (Score 1) 175
May that catchphrase work as well for Microsoft as it did for Oldsmobile...
"...the campaign that served as Olds’ final and famous (infamous?) death gasp: “Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile.”
Reference: https://godsofadvertising.word...
Comment Google might be the least objectionable choice... (Score 1, Troll) 59
Well I do not expect the Department of Defense to shrug, say "oh well..." and move along.
They will find a new partner (maybe Yahoo! Imaging or even Facebook) that might not do as well. Then when the resulting (inferior) AI decides a school bus is really an armored personnel carrier... What could possibly go wrong?
For a further example please refer to Apple maps.
Comment Re:Happened to me (Score 2) 272
There was a very good look at this effect a few years back. Mirosoft emulated GE's technique of laddering everyone and cutting the bottom rungs. The problem wasn't a specific layoff but rather how this rolling layoff poisoned the climate. People were focused on their own survival rather than any team goals. This is long but worth reading...
Comment Unencumbered (Score 2) 236
Here's an unencumbered link to the article:
Comment Re:RIP Facebook - sorry, not sorry (Score 1) 57
You can get there! Facebook does allow you to block an article from any source that shows up in your feed.
Block them all! I keep a few fun ones but block every "media" on all sides. As a result my wall has returned to things that are typed in directly - not "shared"
(for the most part). Messages from friends (real ones) are not swept away in a crap flood.
Comment Re: Safari is good but expensive (Score 1) 82
Afford: yes.
Good value? No.
Comment Safari is good but expensive (Score 0) 82
Safari is good service but relatively expensive, the price O'Reilly gives (after a bunch of click-thrus) is $399/year. Maybe in the past when the primary independent learning route was through books - it was a better deal (and indeed I did subscribe) but for the past decade or so books rank a distant third behind online documentation and discussion.
Why do you suppose Safari was for sale?
Comment Travel more? Really? (Score 1) 472
The last thing on my list is to "travel more". Perhaps if I were a billionaire corporate chairman or lived in a more open society (like China) but travel is now actually something to be endured. Not a pleasure onto itself.
Comment What could possibly go wrong? (Score 1) 95
This could be a boon to the economy! How many streaming web cams could Amazon Video host? Read your EULA carefully because participation might not be optional.
Comment Re:FOCAL (Score 1) 633
Same here - I was surprised to see this listed here - fewer and fewer remember DEC let alone PDP-8 or FOCAL.
Can't claim to remember much else about it other than it was similar to BASIC but my experience in the early 70's predated Gate's version. So I wouldn't have know that at the time.
Comment Re:"I don't have a Facebook account" (Score 2) 75
+1 insightful (oh for Mod points) on " they have shadow accounts on you even if you don't open one yourself"
