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Comment Re: The reason for generations (Score 1) 244

The answer is increased productivity, temporary displacement of workers, commoditization of services that were formerly rendered by humans. People go on living. All this FUD about AI is very silly. How does the world still easily support 7B+ people when people seriously talked about the need to depopulate the earth in the 1970â(TM)s? Technological progress in agriculture. How will the world still have jobs for 8-9B+ people when AI has âoetaken overâ? Technological progress to increase the job productivity of every individual human thanks to AI.

Comment totally annoying (Score 1) 294

My 10 month old son is recovering from a bone marrow transplant. We LIVE in the hospital. We were in a room recently that had a wireless repeater with a bright blue LED. Nothing contributes more to a less sleepful night for a baby (and a parent who sleeps in the room with him) than that single point of annoying light on the ceiling. Seems to me an old school fuse type device that trips when the access point loses power or signal would make more sense than those stupid LED lights.

Comment Re:Consistent Histories? (Score 1) 365

I love this! The "science is god" crowd always loves to cry foul when anyone claims that there are fundamental absolutes about morality, existence, and rationality because, well, obviously we don't know everything. But when science fiction *possibilities* (not probabilities, but possibilities - and in this case, rather far-fetched ones) are taken to task, they want to cry foul again. So which is it, atheists/evolutionists/agnostics? Do we have ANY reasonable, rational basis to believe that information CAN be transmitted faster than light? (Cluetrain: The answer is NO!) Do we have any reasonable, rational basis to disprove God's existence either? (Cluetrain: no, you don't... perhaps you can't prove His existence, but you also can't disprove His existence, either, on purely material grounds.) BTW, The General Theory of Relativity *refined* Newton's theories; it didn't blow it away and make it null and void.

Comment Dropbox + KeePass (Score 1) 1007

Dropbox is a great "access anywhere" secure solution across all major OS platforms, and using KeePass is a great software (as many have already mentioned) for managing all the different passwords you have. Upload KeePass - the executable and the database - to Dropbox, keep your master password verification file that KeePass creates for you on the computers you use and a USB key drive, and you will be very safe and secure, but unhindered by being tied to a particular OS or physical media. When you use dozens of different password-only websites, multiple network logins at work, and your own home computer password apps, it becomes imperative to manage it all in some sane way. The only way to do this for me before was a USB key + TrueCrypt + KeePass, but with Dropbox you eliminate the physical media to be lost accidentally. (And I thought a while back that I HAD lost my USB key, and I literally started freaking out before finding it on my car floor. Switched to Dropbox later that night, and no more freak-out sessions for me.)

Comment del.icio.us, TrueCrypt, USB stick, and iPod (Score 1) 421

del.icio.us has plugins for IE, Firefox, and there is a less useful third-party plugin for Safari which make it easy to "sync" your bookmarks across computers, so I use that for my browser synchronization.
TrueCrypt keeps my really important data (passwords, resume, other sensitive personally identifiable info) safe and secure on my USB drive.
My USB stick on my keychain holds a copy of TrueCrypt to boot from directly when you plug it into a USB port (you need admin authority on the computer you're using to use this feature though), and then some other miscellaneous documents I wouldn't want to lose but aren't sensitive sit on my USB stick in generic folders.
And lastly, my iPod holds a copy of all of the music I care to not lose. (My wife and I also have a 750GB backup drive attached to our iMac at home to keep all of our media files, like photos and video, backed up)

Everything else is either done "in the cloud" online for us, or is proprietary or sensitive data that shouldn't be getting moved off of the primary computer it is on anyway.

Role Playing (Games)

eBay Delisting All Auctions for Virtual Property 324

The growing popularity of Massively Multiplayer games has brought the issue of ownership rights in virtual worlds, and the appropriateness of what is called 'real money transfer' (RMT) into an increasingly public light. The success of the company IGE, as well as the launch of Sony Online Entertainment's 'Station Exchange' service would seem to indicate that RMT is now an acceptable part of Massive gaming. The well-known auction site eBay has recently made a policy decision that may throw these assumptions into a different light. Following up on a rumour that's been going around I spoke today with a media representative for the company, who confirmed that eBay is now delisting all auctions for 'virtual artifacts' from the site. This includes currency, items, and accounts/characters; not even the 'neopoints' used in the popular Neopets service is exempt from this decision. Read on below for the company's rationale for this decision, and a few words on the impact this could have on future RMT sales.
Announcements

Submission + - Dinosaur extinction - meteor not to blame?

The Fun Guy writes: "Recent microfossil evidence casts fresh doubt as to whether an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs. Prof. Gerta Keller of Princeton University: "We now have evidence that the Chicxulub impact occurred about 300,000 years before the end of the Cretaceous and thus didn't cause the mass extinction and, in fact, didn't cause any species to go extinct." These findings were presented during the October 2006 meeting of the Geological Society of America."
Education

Submission + - Is a CS degree any good for an old guy?

mbuckingham writes: I'm 39 and have been programming for 20 years. By "programming", I'm talking about the usual business applications type of stuff. Easy stuff really. I went to college for a while, but never got my degree. It bugs me that I've never completed my degree, but since I've always had decent jobs, it hasn't really mattered too much. I'm really bored with what I do every day though. Anyway, I'm thinking about going back, getting the degree, because I think it will make it possible to move towards doing some more advanced system-level type stuff. Does this make sense? Would a CS degree or a Computer Engineering degree be better? I know I don't want a MIS degree, because that would be rehashing everything I'm already bored with.
Apple

Apple Turning Cell Phone Market Upside Down? 320

joek writes "This MacRumors analysis puts some of the iPhone/Cingular pieces together and suggests that Apple may be turning the the cell phone market upside down. Everyone assumed that Apple's $499/$599 prices for the iPhone was subsidized by Cingular. But, it appears that Apple is not allowing mobile carriers to subsidize the iPhone. Why? Because when Apple comes out with the Touch iPod, they don't want it compared in price to a discounted/subsidized iPhone. Add to that rumors that Cingular may heavily discount service (but according to a Cingular rep, they will not be giving away service, as previously suggested) to attract Verizon customers. Without kicking in $100-$200 against the price of the phone, Cingular can discount the service as an incentive. Other cell phone manufacturers will certainly be interested in the outcome of this new model."
Nintendo

Nintendo Confirms Original Downloads for the Wii 80

The Computer and Videogames site touched base with Nintendo in the wake of an interview with a game company in Game Informer magazine, to check up on their plans for original content on the Wii. A marketing director from Hudson Entertainment stated in GI that the Wii would feature a new games channel for downloadable games, and CVG wanted to follow up on the claim. Nintendo's response was that while they haven't decided on the specific method by which they'll be offering the games online, downloadable original content is definitely in the cards for the console's future. No timeframe was given for this content, but it is reassuring to have this piece of the Wii puzzle reaffirmed by the company.

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