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Comment Another step towards star-trek. - VISOR - (Score 2) 73

From http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/VISOR The VISOR, acronym for Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement, was a medical device used in the Federation to aid patients who have suffered loss of eyesight or who were born blind. The VISOR detected electromagnetic signals across the entire EM spectrum between 1 Hz and 100,000 THz and transmitted those signals to the brain through neural implants in the temples of the individual via delta-compressed wavelengths. We may not be at brain-interface yet, but looks like we are heading in the right direction.

Comment Re:Time heals all trends (Score 1) 395

Maybe the definition of meaningful is in question. If I ask a computer for directions out loud, and it tells them to me and says "is there anything else you need" and I respond with "no", that was meaningful. But I've yet to have a computer initiate a conversation with me about something I might be interested in talking about, nor have I talked to a computer that was successfully able to change the topic to something 'it' wanted to talk about. That would not be a meaningful conversation IMO. Maybe instead of 'meaningful' we should use the word 'interesting' before conversation. Have you ever carried on an interesting conversation with a computer? Me? no. BTW, slashdot noob here, how do you line break.

Comment Re:Time heals all trends (Score 1) 395

Remember, I was working back in a day when I had tons of free time, a lot more money (for tinkering, now a family man) and cell phones were pretty new to everyone. Internet access on the cell phone was for big shots. If I could do it again today, I'm sure something really cool would result from it.

Comment Re:Time heals all trends (Score 2) 395

I've dabbled a bit in my time with what I considered "artificial intelligence". I installed a computer in my car back in 2004 and built a program called MediaEngine to tie it all together. One of the things I always wanted to do on long trips was talk to my computer as if a person was in the car. I would have on a bluetooth earpiece and the voice would come through the stereo speakers. I never had much trouble with the getting the voice recognition to be accurate, but I always was amazed at the lack of things I had to say. I used a program called Ultra Hal, and even tried writing my own in VB6, but I realized the problem isn't that the computer doesn't know how to respond, its just that it has no life experience. Imagine walking up to someone you know. You have things to tell them, and they may or may not have things to tell you, and you both will 'bounce' off each other. Now imagine walking up to someone who has absolutely nothing to say. You say your bit, they say thats nice, have you always done this, etc. Its like an interview. At some point you run out of stuff to say because the other person isn't bouncing anything back. As soon as *this* problem is solved, we will have 'scary' computer conversations. My computer never started speaking to me first...

Comment Re:Cheating (Score 1) 448

I recently had an experience like this. I don't play video games much, but I can take down my buddies in Halo at work at lunch time on the LAN. I recently went to my nephew's house. He was playing Halo 3 on XBOX 360. His two brothers were playing too. I pulled up the fourth controller and lord have mercy I SWORE they were cheating. They were all claiming no they weren't, they were just THAT much better than me at that specific game. Well come to find out they just actually knew the game that well and could play it at hyperspeed, and could do things that I didn't even think of like using a sniper rifle to shoot longrange like a handgun. I was like "HOW ARE YOU KILLING ME WHEN I CAN NEVER SEE YOU". Anyways aimbot or nephew, I don't think you can code that into the system. I can still whoop their arse at MK1 on Sega Genesis though. FINISH HIM!!!

Comment CB Radio (Score 2) 244

We say over or have a tone to signify when we are done speaking. There may be more than one person listening and its a cue for the next person not only that you are done talking, but your message came through. If you are listening and don't hear "over" or "beep" you say "come again" or "missed that last bit" or whatever jargon that the bands you are using requires. I'm not a pilot so all I know is terms i've used on CB over the years.

Comment Re:Windows 7 (Score 1) 404

Thats a good point. It took awhile for me to start using it, but that search bar in the start button can be amazing at times. For instance, when I am at a friends house and need to remote into another pc, i just type "remote" and the RDC thing pops up. Beats searching through a bunch of menus. Speed seems on par with XP. I have found that some applications don't work correctly in vista (and its usually when i'm trying to do something odd like install strange extensions into outdated versions of dreamweaver to support a proprietary thing we use at work). I can easily use XP mode here to get things going right away. (Why this isn't in Win7 Home Prem is beyond me though). Also, as for driver support, someone mentioned that devices may not work on Windows7. For a business, this is valid, but for most home users, well, anyone with devices that won't work on Win7 really should go and get some new devices. Another point, usually the devices that don't work are oddball things like webcams that are not used too often. IMO.

Comment Tired of hearing about tablets? (Score 0) 174

Does anyone tire of hearing about tablets? I am pretty sure I remember some buzz like this around 'tablet laptops'... The ones that the monitor spins around and you use a pen. Turns out those weren't as wonderful as we thought. Almost everyone used the keyboards after about 5 minutes. Some time goes by, and we get the iPad. Its interesting, but I still don't get the *real* point of it. The device itself isn't particularly useful for business. I've seen them 'forced' into a business and not really work any better than an iPhone for scheduling meetings. The business model was pure creative on top of that, something that Apple clearly caters to with their design cues. Other than being a really fancy calendar and email thing, it was not particularly useful. We didn't pass them around looking at graphs and images, we used the overhead projector hooked to a PC. Not everyone runs around in fancy suits doing business on the go, smiling like stock photo people... not having time for a PC. Most of us use a desktop. Until something can be *that* useful, its just going to be a 'oooh I gotta have that' thing, not unlike a kid wants a particular toy because their friends have it or they see cool advertising. I don't think screen size is an important factor, and I also don't think that available applications are the factor. Theres a million for the iphone, yet I only install maybe 10 on mine. Until someone finds a way to do useful database administration, or web development from one of these devices, I don't see them really finding a good use other than entertainment.

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