Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:analog computer (Score 1) 91

What interests me the most are the levels of subconscious/consciousness and where all this combines to create our singular, waking awareness.

Based on evidence of the effects of dissociative drugs, psychedelic drugs, and general anaesthetics, it seems likely that our 'singular, waking awareness' is primarily an effect of the information transfer between various brain regions through the posterior cingulate cortex.

Of course, knowing that doesn't make it any less of a head-fuck to contemplate how strange it is to be anything at all.

Comment Re:Oh Please Edge Detection and Motion Detection (Score 1) 91

While you're not wrong, I do think that from the perspective of the article, it's also not really so relevant.

'This means that, in theory, an artificial equivalent of a brain-like cognitive structure may not require a massively parallel architecture at the level of single neurons, but rather a properly designed set of limited processes that run in parallel on a much lower scale'

Basically from my understanding, he's saying here that if we handle the sub-systems in a more traditional manner - as in, existing edge detection and motion detection algorithms in standard computing systems - that with ~50 parallel threads, we could have something brain-like.

It's also worth considering though that this is far less cool than it sounds at first blush simply by fact that the sub-systems would not be brain-like in the slightest.

Comment Re:analog computer (Score 1) 91

While it may seem analogue, I'd definitely call the brain digital from a functional perspective.

The amount of neurotransmitters, strength of electrical activity, and so on are definitely analogue inputs; but due to the way that action potentials fire in cells, you're either "firing them" or "not firing them" (analogy: magnetic data on a disc is also analogue, but we only really care about the on/off state of it). Most information appears to be transferred based on the rate of firing them, and is not encoded in any special aspect of the spikes themselves. Furthermore, you might then assume that the rate timing of the spikes may be considered analogue data - again though, it's not really. There is a refractory period that limits the maximal firing rate of a single neuron, and downstream effects of this basically mean that the firing rates themselves could also in theory be quantised in a digital manner (although it'd be a massively complex problem to actually figure that all out).

While the whole system is quite fundamentally different from our current digital computers, it is nevertheless something that could also be a digital system.

Comment I've been on Gigabit in EPB territory for a year (Score 1) 279

Here's what I can tell you.

1. Outside of torrents, you're not going to get the full benefit of that gig for most applications.
2. Netflix is awesome with it. Load times of a few seconds for high def.
3. Hard wire anything that doesn't move often (TV/Blu Ray/PS3/Desktop/etc) and have plenty of ports around the house you can plug your laptop in just in case you feel you need more speed.
4. Use wireless the rest of the time. You seriously just won't notice that big of a difference web browsing unless you have serious interference issues although if you're gaming, you'll want to use the hard wire.

Honestly with current web applications, a gig is just about overkill. Sure that might change in the future once gig becomes more prevalent, but it's seriously overpowered for pretty much everything currently. Short of having multiple people streaming HD video and downloading/uploading via torrents, your pipe is going to be bored most of the time.

Comment Re:How do we actually know? (Score 2) 203

I could harvest 5m gmail names from google searches, and then publish them with bogus passwords and create panic. Is there some statistic that says how many of these were real passwords?

Statistics, probably not. But to confirm they're not just all made up, I checked a few of the ones that were obviously a password for another site (one of the '+' addresses) and after 4 tries, found one that worked (on the 'other site', not on gmail). So they're definitely not just 'made up' passwords; they just aren't necessarily a password that was ever actually used for the email address they're associated to.

Comment Re:Probably a few sites were hacked (Score 1) 203

where are you finding the passwords? Im on the list and use KeePass for just about everything so should be able to nail down exactly where they got my password from.

The list with passwords was easily available for a while (and still is if you hunt around a bit - I found it without too much trouble).

Comment Re:Just people using same passwords (Score 1) 203

I'd guess it's just hacks of other sites, filter it on just gmail accounts and hope they used the same password for both

I'm pretty sure that's right. Actually, I'd say I'm around 5 nines certain.

My email is on the list (afforess@gmail.com, go check!) I use a password for gmail I have never used for any other site.

According to the list, the password is a 7 character string, lowercase, moderately common first name starting with c.

Comment Re:"Paleolithic diets" now vs then (Score 1) 281

The latest research points to primarily sugar being the main problem in our diets. Excessive carbs in general seem to be likely driving a fair amount of weight and health problems and my very rudimentary understanding of the paleo approach addresses this and it's why many people on it find success -- if you're eating paleo, you aren't eating much bread, sugar, etc.

It seems to me that this transition to carb heavy diets that satiate hunger probably helped accelerate civilization -- it helped to satisfy hunger more easily and freed people to pursue activities that didn't involve hunting for food from dusk till dawn. But this came at a price -- negative health effects.

Maybe I just don't understand what paleo is all about, but trying to achieve a balance of macronutrients closer to those original diets seems like the point (or it should IMO) and not actually trying to eat foods that are 100% like what our ancestors ate.

Comment Re:That's why slashdot is against tech immigration (Score 1) 441

It's a very typical practice to have insane requirements that just aren't practical for jobs you have no intention of locally sourcing. Spend 10 minutes on a major job board and you'll find them. It will be like 6+ years experience in a product that's only been out for 6 or 7 years. They'll want someone that's an expert on three or four unrelated things that it's just not likely someone WILL be an expert on all of them -- expert in Java, SAN and Networking with 8+ years project management experience. They will post someone with CCIE level experience and be asking for someone at a CCNA level salary.

I've noticed you'll find this behavior often in older public companies that have exhausted their market growth through saturation and have made every reasonable efficiency improvement they can make without hitting salaries and cutting workforce. This is the last step of the constant drive for greater profits to appease shareholders.

Being in one of these companies at this transition period is not particularly pleasant and there's a better than good chance you'll get axed either on the front-end as they find a way to outsource your job or on the back-end as they prep the company to look more attractive to a potential buyer or after an acquisition and your job is marked as duplicate because someone from the other company is working for less and will get saddled with your work load.

Comment Re:Pete and Repeat (Score 1) 278

Most employers only care what you've done in the last 7 years. Outside of that window, it's generally assumed that either A. The skills/tech are no longer relevant or B. If you haven't used it in the last 7 years, you probably don't remember it well enough to be relevant anyway.

Tweak your resume to highlight your skills and experience that are relevant to the job posting. Don't include anything that isn't directly related or completely awesome. I mean REALLY awesome. Like you won a prestigious award kind of awesome.

Most resumes I've seen that are excessively long would be less than 2 pages following this design regardless of the formatting unless you used gigantic fonts.

Slashdot Top Deals

"Given the choice between accomplishing something and just lying around, I'd rather lie around. No contest." -- Eric Clapton

Working...