Comment Re:I think we should ban cosmetics completely (Score 5, Insightful) 383
Yeah, the trouble is, the people who want to walk around naked are generally the ones you'd least like to see undressed...
Comment Re:Very much a work in progress (Score 1) 402
Right, Voice Search on my Samsung does the same thing, but Siri/Iris is touted as being more than that, so I wanted to see how it would handle a reasonable natural language query. Not well, it turns out, but perhaps improvements are in store.
Comment Re:Very much a work in progress (Score 1) 402
Good point. I cleared the history and asked it the same question, with no other questions. That time, I ended up asking twice:
Q: Where is the nearest Wal Mart?
A: Nearest what?
(Then I asked again)
Q: Where is the nearest Wal Mart?
A: In Europe.
So I dunno. Maybe it's a problem with how it's parsing the question, rather than the lookup method for the answer.
Q: Where is the nearest Wal Mart?
A: Nearest what?
(Then I asked again)
Q: Where is the nearest Wal Mart?
A: In Europe.
So I dunno. Maybe it's a problem with how it's parsing the question, rather than the lookup method for the answer.
Comment Re:Very much a work in progress (Score 1) 402
But it wasn't the right answer - yesterday's high was 61F, which I should also have posted, so it was way off. I don't know where it got the data, but it looks like a forecast that would have been accurate about two months ago, not yesterday.
Comment Re:Very much a work in progress (Score 1) 402
You do realize that range of temperatures is from the low point at night to the high point during the day, right? I see nothing "impressive" about the range of temps. It looks like a perfectly normal forecast. Perhaps you're just not acquainted with how weather is predicted and reported?
I should perhaps have been clearer about the actual temps at the time - yesterday's high here was 61F, which is far lower than the low end of the range Iris gave me, never mind the high end.
Comment Very much a work in progress (Score 4, Funny) 402
Some sample queries I fed Iris:
Q: Where can I get a cheeseburger?
A: The bank.
Q: What's the weather like in (my town) tomorrow?
A: Now in (my town) the temperature varies between low points of 26C and highs of 36C (79F and 97F). The conditions are light rain showers during the day. The day after that the temperature will vary between 26C and 37C (79F and 99F) and the conditions will be sunny weather.
(It didn't rain today, and despite the impressive range of temps - way to cover your bases, Iris - it still muffed the highs for today and tomorrow.)
Q: What time is it in Hong Kong?
A: October 23rd 2011, 8:24:52 HKST
Q: Where is the nearest Wal Mart?
A: Probably Washington. It's a state border.
(I live on the east coast.)
Q: What's the population of Canada?
A: The population of Canada is approximately 33,100,000.
Q: How far is it from Chicago to New York?
A: 1,145.16 kilometers (711.57 miles).
Q: Where can I get a recipe for cheesecake?
A: En la esquina, con minifalda.
(Yes, it really said that in Spanish.)
So, yeah - a work in progress. It had no trouble recognizing every single question, it just fell down on many of the answers.
Q: Where can I get a cheeseburger?
A: The bank.
Q: What's the weather like in (my town) tomorrow?
A: Now in (my town) the temperature varies between low points of 26C and highs of 36C (79F and 97F). The conditions are light rain showers during the day. The day after that the temperature will vary between 26C and 37C (79F and 99F) and the conditions will be sunny weather.
(It didn't rain today, and despite the impressive range of temps - way to cover your bases, Iris - it still muffed the highs for today and tomorrow.)
Q: What time is it in Hong Kong?
A: October 23rd 2011, 8:24:52 HKST
Q: Where is the nearest Wal Mart?
A: Probably Washington. It's a state border.
(I live on the east coast.)
Q: What's the population of Canada?
A: The population of Canada is approximately 33,100,000.
Q: How far is it from Chicago to New York?
A: 1,145.16 kilometers (711.57 miles).
Q: Where can I get a recipe for cheesecake?
A: En la esquina, con minifalda.
(Yes, it really said that in Spanish.)
So, yeah - a work in progress. It had no trouble recognizing every single question, it just fell down on many of the answers.
Comment Re:same as with everything else (Score 1) 401
Considering that the US is neither fascist nor controlled by corporations, your declaration that capitalism "always" ends in such is rather suspect. One simple counterexample invalidates such a sweeping generalization.
I suppose you will now follow with a diatribe intended to display the corporate domination of the US. Carry on.
Comment Re:same as with everything else (Score 0) 401
It happened many times over the course of history.
Name three instances. Be as specific as possible.
Comment Re:its not 'unions'. (Score 1) 608
I think not.
Comment Re:its not 'unions'. (Score 1) 608
Perhaps it says something about the system that its practitioners tend to be brain-damaged megalomaniacs.
Kaspersky Calls For 'Internet Interpol' 136
angry tapir writes "With cybercrime now the second largest criminal activity in the world, measures such as the creation of an 'Internet Interpol' and better cooperation between international law enforcement agencies are needed if criminals are to be curtailed in the future, Kaspersky Labs founder and security expert Eugene Kaspersky has argued. He said, 'We were talking about that 10 years ago and almost nothing has happened. Sooner or later we will have one. I am also talking about Internet passports and having an online ID. Some countries are introducing this idea, so maybe in 15 years we will all have it.'"
Comment Re:Changing TV channels (Score 1) 297
Digital cable normally works unidirectionally, think multicast. The header sends information for all the receivers, is not point to point like the internet. So, it doesn't matter that you don't want to see the channel, they still have to send it because somebody else *might* want to see it. And, yes, the channel guide travels in the "background".
That's mostly correct but some providers are trialling switched digital video (google it), which will only add to the latency issue.
Comment Re:That's normal (Score 3, Informative) 372
Yeah, except this isn't 250 gigs, it's 31.25 gigs, also known as 250 gigabits.
Except it's not:
"As of October 1, 2008, data usage above 250 Gigabytes ("GB") per month per Comcast High-Speed Internet residential customer account is considered excessive."
http://customer.comcast.com/Pages/FAQViewer.aspx?seoid=frequently-asked-questions-about-excessive-use
Comment Re:You can remove the gay, but not the FABULOUS! (Score 1) 917
But if you want to pretend that any given gay men are just as likely to like sports as musical theater, I'm certainly not stopping you.
It might depend on the crowd and especially on the sport.
None of the gay dudes I know are into musical theatre, but they all love soccer. Go figure.
Life imitating art?
http://www.onionsportsnetwork.com/video/soccer-officially-announces-it-is-gay,17603/
Comment Re:You overlooked something... (Score 2) 607
I'm not sure I that most Americans appreciate just how right wing, conservative, pretty, ill-educated, reactionary, selfish, jingoistic, partisan, anti-intellectual, anti-science and anti-reason US politics appears from the external point of view.
From your external point of view, or from the point of view that's been sold to you by your own media and politicians? I'm sure it's pleasing to imagine that you hold some privileged frame of reference, but maybe it's possible that the people telling you these things are telling you the things you want to hear, and the things they want you to believe.
