That was a very informative post. I am interested in AI and I took Norvig's online AI class back in the Fall. It contained virtually nothing about strong AI, and instead focused rather heavily on algorithms to efficiently interpret sensory/input data. It essentially placed AI squarely into a CS context, which in my opinion will always yield weak AI projects.

I checked out Smolensky, and he is pretty prolific. Are there any specific resources you would recommend for learning about the more abstract math involved in strong AI?

I was going to make my app for both platforms, but then I learned you have to buy a mac with os Lion just to be able to use the most recent xcode.

Sometimes Google does evil things, but the android SDK with the eclipse integration and the android virtualization, all for free and cross platform, is really, really nice. You could easily release an app for $0 cost other than time. That is the kind of community support that makes me loyal to a company.

The most valuable part of machine assisted learning is the ability to move at your own pace. There are some OCW lectures I had to watch 3 or 4 times before I got it. Now matter how good a teacher is, no student is going to ask them to repeatsomething four times. The student will just nod and feign understanding, and the teacher will move on.

Associating large drives with pirates is just the sort of thinking that will lead to a blank media tax, or even requiring buyers to register.

I call BS. I devote a large part of my free to movies, tv, and internet media. Even so, I was able to go through the entire first year of Game of Thrones without watching it or getting spoilers. Most people will go out of their way to avoid giving away spoilers with a degree of fanaticism rarely seen anywhere else.

No, people torrent Game of Thrones because they can. Maybe this particular example is a little easier to justify because of the absurd notion of actually buying cable + HBO, but everything else is available to torrent as well. Even over-the-air shows, which are essentially free, are torrented because it only takes 1 person in a billion who is willing to capture it and edit out the advertising for the rest of us.

The only business model that can survive into the future is one that clearly connects money raised with future content (think kickstarter, but with mainstream professionals instead of super-niche pipe dreams). If Game of Thrones announced tomorrow they were not making another season until it was paid for, my $20 would be in their paypal account within the hour. They could charge as the market will bear, but only the stuff that people actually want could get made.

Microsoft was in the top 10 corporate contributors to the kernel in 2011. And I am not a shill, check my posts dawg.

God I hate the arrogance of the phrase "fly-over state". Here in Indiana we have a higher average connection speed than the both New Jersey and the US average according to the akamai graph generator on the site.

But you are still using your cash to support the DVD/Bluray model of DRM on plastic disks. I can't see how buying a DVD is any more morally appealing than buying DRM .mp4s off iTunes.

The obvious reply to this argument is that the companies know exactly how much customers are willing to happily pay, and it is less then they have been paying for the last 20 years of cable. So yes, there are plenty of potential business plans out there that appeal to consumers and still bring studios cash, but they are getting killed because they represent an overall decrease in profits.

Domain squatting and name exhaustion has gotten so bad, it is nearly impossible to create a website brand that doesn't use either some crazy portmanteau or a whole sentence strung together. I welcome the idea of adding hundreds of gTLDs, because over time it will make any one of them less important.

No more will I contemplate shelling out $7,000 because the domain I really want is being squatted. Instead, I will just add one of the hundreds of gTLDs, and make that my brand name.

Also, dibs on http://slashdot.dot/

obligatory

I would extend that to Google, Facebook, and really any tech company. The reality is that many of these companies are one-trick ponies, and despite their best efforts, they are unable to expand. Google really went all out to clone Facebook for G+, and a year later it's a ghost town. Similarly; I can remember when Dell and Sony were the epitome of consumer hardware, and now they've been almost completely eclipsed. There is just no room for second place, and no one stays on top for long.

But those examples are only replacing simple machines with more automated machines. What is really interesting, and what the summary hints at, is the possibility of replacing jobs that have traditionally been thought to require critical thinking.

Imagine a day when I can take my medical concerns to a computer with access to far more expertise than any doctor, or rely on a computer as a lawyer with far more knowledge than any human lawyer. Hell, you probably recoil from the idea of electing an AI president simply because you watched 2001: A Space Odyssey or Terminator and then made up your mind. You racist.

NASA tracks space debris the size of a golf ball, why didn't they see this? This is yet another example of how asteroid detection need a higher priority.

"Without piracy, there is no freedom" ~Descartes ~Michael Scott