Comment Re:Teach the controversy (Score 1) 672
Aliens built the Pyramids Teach The Controversy
Also, babies really come from STORKS not sex. Teach the controversy!!!! http://controversy.wearscience.com/
Comment Re:I Respectfully Disagree with You (Score 1) 584
Well said.
And btw... About this line
> The website will be a therapist -- telling you only what you want to hear
this was a surprising comment to me. If that was your experience with a therapist, please don't assume that all therapists would have such a useless strategy!
Good well-trained and empathetic therapists do challenge assumptions and help move you towards useful and new perspectives not merely ego stroking. Everyone if possible should shop around for therapists and find someone that is a good fit, and that includes getting the right amount of insightfulness and independence of thought, with rapport but also without fear of speaking truthfully in your presence.
Artificial Synapse Created For Synthetic Brain 129
Zothecula writes "It's probably still going to be a while before autonomous, self-aware androids are wandering amongst us. That scenario has come a little closer to reality, however, with researchers from the University of Southern California having created a functioning synapse circuit using carbon nanotubes. An artificial version of the connections that allow electrical impulses to pass between neurons in our brains, the circuit could someday be one component of a synthetic brain."
Scientists Create a "Worth Saving" Index For Endangered Animals
259
If you're one of the last hairy-nosed-wombats left in Australia things got a little worse for you today. Thanks to a new mathematical tool created by researchers from James Cook University and the University of Adelaide, the wombat has been classified as not worth saving. Co-author of the safe index Professor Corey Bradshaw says he doesn't think people should give up on saving extremely endangered animals but adds, "...if you take a strictly empirical view, things that are well below in numbering in the hundreds - white-footed rock rats, certain types of hare wallabies, a lot of the smaller mammals that have been really nailed by the feral predators like cats, and foxes - in some cases it is probably not worthwhile putting a lot of effort because there's just no chance."
Comment Dunning-Kruger Effect (Score 3, Informative) 757
The popular belief these days is that everyone is allowed to a have 'democratic' opinion on any subject regardless if they have any clue as to what they are talking about
These links may also be enlightening:
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/05/12/confident-dumb-peopl.html
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Dunning-Kruger_Effect
Apple Creating Cloud-Based Mac? 204
hostedftp writes "In speculation news making the rounds — Apple's recent activities in the Cloud has been leading to conclusions of the what the innovative giant plans to unleash in 2011. The most recent news of Apple applying and securing a patent for a network-boosted OS has made speculators believe Apple is going to launch a Cloud-based operating system for the Mac."
Comment Is Bender Bending Rodriguez... God? (Score 1) 277
Most tales about YHWH aren't painting a picture of a nice guy. It's not that unreasonable to even half-seriously suggest that YHWH was an alien; too many of his actions and orders are pretty inhuman by anyone's measure, but fit a heartless robot just fine.
Yeah, because when you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.
A Peek At South Korea's Autonomous Robot Gun Turrets 298
cylonlover writes "If there's one place you don't want to be caught wandering around right now, it's the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea. Especially since South Korean military hardware manufacturer DoDAMM used the recent Korea Robot World 2010 expo to display its new Super aEgis 2, an automated gun turret that can detect and lock onto human targets from kilometers away, day or night and in any weather conditions, and deliver some heavy firepower."
Comment the evangelical fundamentalist echo chamber (Score 1) 648
This is just a part of the evangelical fundamentalist echo chamber.
This is just a part of the evangelical fundamentalist echo chamber.
Comment extensible type system also means type loaders (Score 1) 330
I am not sure what the "extensible type system" means
It means that you can add methods or properties to a class without subclassing it. This feature is one of the very few things that I actually like about Objective C.
It also means that Gosu supports custom type loaders that dynamically inject types into the language so you can use them as native objects in Gosu.
For example, custom type loaders add Gosu types for objects from XML schemas (XSDs) and from remote WS-I compliant web services (SOAP). Later versions of the Gosu community release will include more APIs and documentation about creating your own custom type loaders.
Modules of code containing type loaders can create entire namespaces of new types. This means that a type loader can import external objects and let Gosu code manipulate them as native objects. There are two custom type loaders that included in Gosu: (1) Gosu XML typeloader. This type loader supports the native Gosu APIs for XML. For more information, see "Gosu and XML". (2) Gosu SOAP typeloader. This type loader supports the native Gosu APIs for SOAP.
The first Gosu community release does not yet include these add-on typeloaders that support these APIs due to in-progress changes in bundling add-on typeloaders. The Gosu documentation describes the XML and web services APIs right now so you can become familiar with these upcoming APIs.
For more information http://gosu-lang.org/doc/wwhelp/wwhimpl/api.htm?&context=gosu&src=intro&topic=Extensible_Type_System
Comment Re:Looks very interesting (Score 1) 330
But I really like my semicolons (as much as lispers like their parenthesis)
Good news then!!!
Because you CAN use your semicolons in Gosu!
They are optional, although not the standard Gosu coding style. http://gosu-lang.org/doc/wwhelp/wwhimpl/api.htm?&context=gosu&src=intro&topic=Gosu_Statement_Terminators
Comment Re:Cool. Next, fix the VM (Score 1) 330
New languages for the JVM are cool and all, but still no syntax fixes the problems inherent in the JVM. Mainly, the lack of generics.
Actually there are several improvements to the Gosu generics system that workaround JVM limitations.
In Java, when you use generics, the true type like MyClass is erased and it just becomes MyClass at run time. This called type erasure.
In Gosu, if you do the same thing, assuming MyClass is a Gosu type, the run time type is really MyClass. This is called reified generics.
(Note however that if the type is a Java type to start out with, like java.util.ArrayList, then the generic version ArrayList in Gosu follows the type erasure route as you'd imagine.)
But if you are playing in the Gosu world with Gosu types (for example, a Gosu class ), the language adds code that really does preserve generics even though the JVM doesn't natively think that way.
Comment Re:Gosu! (Score 1) 330
"But it IS a piece of Gosu!"
Don't worry: the language will probably be cancelled before it has a chance to really get going.
Anyway, that was my first thought too, then I wondered if it was an invitation to Oracle's lawyers...?
regarding the "chance to really get going", Gosu is already used by multi-billion dollar companies around the world already, for a bunch of years.
See a list of companies here: http://www.guidewire.com/our_customers
It's just that the language now available to a wider audience who want it, not just Guidewire Software customers.
Gosu Programming Language Released To Public 330
llamafirst writes "Guidewire Software released the Gosu programming language for public availability. Gosu is a general-purpose programming language built on top of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). It is object-oriented, static typed, imperative, and 100% Java compatible (use/extend Java types, implement Java interfaces, compile to Java bytecode). It has type inference (very readable code yet static typing!), in-line functions that you can pass as objects (closures / lambda expressions / blocks), enhancements (inject methods + properties, even on Java types!), and simplified generics. Gosu is provided via the Apache License v2.0. The language itself is not yet open source, although that is planned for a future community release. You can read a complete introduction to the Gosu language, a comparison to other languages, and syntax differences from Java."
Submission + - Gosu programming language released to public today 3
llamafirst writes: Guidewire Software released the Gosu programming language today for public availability. Gosu is a general-purpose programming language built on top of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). It is object-oriented, static typed, imperative, 100% Java compatible (use/extend Java types, implement Java interfaces, compile to Java bytecode), type inference (very readable code yet static typing!), in-line functions that you can pass as objects (closures / lambda expressions / blocks), enhancements (inject methods + properties, even on Java types!), simplified generics. Gosu has an extensible type system: type loaders dynamically inject types into the language and handle dynamic dispatch. Type loaders dynamically add types from XSDs so XML is easier, and same for consuming remote web services (SOAP WS-I). Guidewire Software's core business is big insurance software and includes Gosu in its products. So, Gosu is new to the public but billion-dollar companies worldwide use Gosu in production for critical systems right now. Gosu is provided via the Apache License v2.0. The language itself is not yet open source, although that is planned for a future community release. Read complete introduction to the Gosu language, compare to other langs, syntax diffs from Java.
