Comment Re:Questions (Score 1) 1774
Are you an asshole when you delete a program you wrote?
In most cases, no. But if you've achieved true "Strong" AI, and the program is a sentient entity, then yes, yes you are.
Comment Re:No - Reasonable is... (Score 1) 287
1. Find an engineer who has dealt much with tech patent licensing issues. (I haven't myself, but I've performed this experiment and the results were fascinating.)
2, Get a couple of beers into him.
3. Be prepared to duck for cover.
4. Ask him about the phrase "Reasonable And Non-Discriminatory".
Comment Re:Power it from above (Score 2) 129
Good to know I'm not the only one who has that dream.
Comment Re:Power it from above (Score 1) 129
But think of the amount of popcorn they could produce in remote locations...
The Crossbow Project
There's no defense like a good offense.
DDR4 May Replace Mobile Memory For Less 145
Lucas123 writes "The upcoming shift from Double Data Rate 3 (DDR3) RAM to its successor, DDR4, will herald a significant boost in both memory performance and capacity for data center hardware and consumer products alike. Because of the greater density, 2X performance and lower cost, the upcoming specification and products will for the first time mean DDR may be used in mobile devices instead of LPDDR. Today, mobile devices use low-power DDR (LPDDR) memory, the current iteration of which uses 1.2v of power. While the next generation of mobile memory, LPDDR3, will further reduce that power consumption (probably by 35% to 40%), it will also likely cost 40% more than DDR4 memory."
Discovery Channel Crashes a Boeing 727 For Science Documentary (latimes.com) 281
A Boeing 727 passenger jet has been deliberately crash-landed. The pilot ejected just minutes before the collision. The plane was packed with scientific experiments, including crash test dummies. Dozens of cameras recorded the crash from inside the aircraft, on the ground, in chase planes and even on the ejecting pilot's helmet. All of this was done for a feature length documentary to be shown on the Discovery Channel later this year."
Comment Re:Contradictions (Score 1) 276
The summary is so contradictory because it quotes from 2 articles, and each of them is completely different.
" A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, (Emerson)
"Look Ye not unto Slashdot for Answers, for Ye shall be told both Yea and Nay." (seen in a sig some years ago)
Comment Re:Sensible (Score 3, Funny) 373
Bertrand Russell walked into a cafe. He asked the waiter for a cup of coffee, with no cream or sugar. The waiter said "I'm sorry, but we're out of cream. Will you take it with no milk or sugar?"
Comment Re:I think Google does not understand open source (Score 1) 203
Are we still doing this?
Comment Re:It a way of coping (Score 1) 209
And don't forget: http://xkcd.com/933/
Novell Wins Against SCO Again 152
duh P3rf3ss3r writes "The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has just affirmed the District Court ruling in SCO v Novell (PDF) in its entirety. The decision is quite a good read and lays out the reasons why the court has rejected, in toto, SCO's attempt to re-argue the case before the Court of Appeals. Is this the last gasp for SCO or will they try to appeal this to the Supreme Court? The betting lines open at 11..."
Realistically this is the end of the line for the case.
Ugly Truth of Space Junk 185
fysdt writes "Dealing with the decades of detritus from using outer space — human-made orbital debris — is a global concern, but some experts are now questioning the feasibility of the wide range of 'solutions' sketched out to grapple with high-speed space litter. What may be shaping up is an 'abandon in place' posture for certain orbital altitudes — an outlook that flags the messy message resulting from countless bits of orbital refuse. US General William Shelton, commander of Air Force Space Command, underscored the worrisome issue of orbital debris during a presentation at the National Space Symposium on April 12, 2011. In a recent conference here, Gen. William Shelton, commander of the US Air Force Space Command, relayed his worries about rising amounts of human-made space junk."
Comment Re:Purpose... (Score 1) 59
The Crossbow Project
There's no Defense like a good Offense
UnXis Group To Acquire SCO 131
Evil-G writes "In an email on Friday, SCO informed its partners that UnXis Inc. was chosen as the successful bidder for SCO's Unix software business on 26 January. The slightly convoluted phrasing is probably due to SCO's current reorganization under Chapter 11. On 16 February, the transaction is to be submitted for approval to the bankruptcy court where SCO's case is pending."
45 Years Later, Does Moore's Law Still Hold True? 214
Velcroman1 writes "Intel has packed just shy of a billion transistors into the 216 square millimeters of silicon that compose its latest chip, each one far, far thinner than a sliver of human hair. But this mind-blowing feat of engineering doesn't really surprise us, right? After all, that's just Moore's Law in action isn't it? In 1965, an article in "Electronics" magazine by Gordon Moore, the future founder of chip juggernaut Intel, predicted that computer processing power would double roughly every 18 months. Or maybe he said 12 months. Or was it 24 months? Actually, nowhere in the article did Moore actually spell out that famous declaration, nor does the word 'law' even appear in the article at all. Yet the idea has proved remarkably resilient over time, entering the zeitgeist and lodging like a stubborn computer virus you just can't eradicate. But does it hold true? Strangely, that seems to depend more than anything on whom you ask. 'Yes, it still matters, and yes we're still tracking it,' said Mark Bohr, Intel senior fellow and director of process architecture and integration. 'Semiconductor chips haven't actually tracked the progress predicted by Moore's law for many years,' said Tom Halfhill, the well respected chip analyst with industry bible the Microprocessor Report."
