Comment Must be fucking joking (Score 1) 54
A Facebook operating system. KublaCant'd rather run his balls on Windows 95 than to use...such...an...abomination....
Comment Well then (Score -1, Troll) 120
I will be able to watch pr0n for the entire 3-hour train ride home to mommy ! WTG, Intel !
Submission + - African Soil Mapped for the Very First Time (europa.eu)
vikingpower writes: A team of international experts has drawn up the Soil Atlas of Africa — the first such book mapping this key natural resource — to help farmers, land managers and policymakers understand the diversity and importance of soil and the need to manage it through sustainable use. A joint commission of the African Union and the European Union has produced a complete atlas of African soils, downloadable as 3 hefty PDFs ( Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. ) The initiative was announced four years ago, and is intended "to help farmers, land managers and policymakers understand the diversity and importance of soil and the need to manage it through sustainable use." A digital, interactive series of maps is ( still ) in the making.
Comment Re:These are not the droids you're looking for (Score 1) 275
I am glad to be "just" an ordinary developer and software architect, not James Cameron.
All I wanted, with this submission, was to kindle discussion. Obviously, that goal was reached :-) The "still" in "still have a human being in charge", however, is tell-tale, and in and by itself already justification enough for wanting to kindle such a discussion, as it is an often-heard argument. You do know, I suppose, that there are already fully automated guardian robots for sale, armed with nothing less than rapid-fire cannons ?
Submission + - Human Rights Watch: Petition Against Robots on the Battle Field (hrw.org) 1
KublaCant writes: ""At this very moment, researchers around the world – including in the United States – are working to develop fully autonomous war machines: killer robots. This is not science fiction. It is a real and powerful threat to humanity". These are the first words of a Human Rights Watch Petition to Presdient Obama to keep robots from the battlefield. The argument is that robots possess neither common sense, "real" reason, any sense of mercy nor — most important — the option to not obey illegal commands. What with the fast-spreading use of drones et al. , we are allegedly a long way off from Asimov's famous Three Laws of Robotics being implanted in autonomous fighting machines, or into any ( semi- ) autonomous robot.
A "Stop the Killer Robots" campaign will also be launched in April at the British House of Commons and includes many of the groups that successfully campaigned to have international action taken against cluster bombs and landmines. They hope to get a similar global treaty against autonomous weapons. The Guardian has more about this, including quotes from well-known robotics researcher Noel Sharkey from Sheffield University."
Comment It WAS a revolution (Score 1) 243
In the place I worked then ( a startup, later acquired by BMC of Austin, Texas and then vanished into nothingness ), music at the workplace was unheard of. So we put money together for a pair of speakers and a sound card, hooked those up to an old PC - and there we went. Each had his say for an entire day: classics, French chansons, hard rock, mainstream - Napster had it all. Those were the days !
Comment Do-not-track option for slashtards ? (Score 0) 170
I mean, hey. There ain't one, yet - and my gf already tracks me from early mornin' to late evening....
Comment Re:wow (Score 0) 64
Fuck. I drink 1 to 2 bottles of wine per day. Am I a fokking fruit fly now ?
Comment WTF, dude ? (Score -1, Offtopic) 64
You live in a neighbourhood where you get mails about the fucking grass being too long, or the ( can't believe this ) "mailbox is mildewed" ?? What police state are you living in ? Make sure you get away from there. Soon you'll get email reminders to change your underpants. The thought police will come soon after that. Man, man, man.
Comment The quick red fox humps the lazy dog (Score 1) 240
oh shit, wait....
Comment In one word: (Score 1) 270
Woosh
Comment Well heck, yes (Score 1) 1313
Worked in that country myself, for some years ( aircraft constructor, currently world's largest ). The guy is right, and spot-on. Trying to get French people to actually be productive is one helluvajob. I was dealing with Thales, once, for avionics parts. Quite often, when I came in at the Thales plant, there would be drum beatings and red flags. When I asked what that was, I got the answer "We are on strike. That is a constitutional right of us, and we use it as we love it". Let such work forces, indeed, go to hell.
Comment Yeah right. (Score 3, Insightful) 147
A moron who once had business cards with "I'm CEO, bitch !" thinks scientists are going to take him serious because of... what ? Money ? Dontlemmelaugh.
