Comment Re:Too secure for insecure? (Score 2) 569
Secure from third party access vs secure from justice. The original poster knows the difference but chooses to use Orwellian BS to try to conflate and confuse the issue.
Submission + - Google's DeepMind Is Developing An AI Kill Switch (hothardware.com) 2
MojoKid writes: With big companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook and IBM all racing to develop AI software and hardware to address real-world needs, it's now commonly thought that one day soon AI could be much more intelligent and powerful than humans. As Elon Musk recently expressed concern--in the wrong hands or gone rouge--an AI agent could be a very real threat. The threat of a real life skynet apocalypse will not be the stuff of science fiction one day. Fortunately, some smart folks are actually also working on methods to maintain control of super-intelligent AI agents. In fact, a team of researchers at Google-owned DeepMind, along with University of Oxford scientists, are developing a proverbial kill switch for AI. The team has released a white paper on the topic called "Safely Interruptible Agents." The paper details the following in abstract: "Learning agents interacting with a complex environment like the real world are unlikely to behave optimally all the time. If such an agent is operating in real-time under human supervision, now and then it may be necessary for a human operator to press the big red button to prevent the agent from continuing a harmful sequence of actions..." The papers goes on to explain that these AI agents might also learn to disable the kill switch and further explores ways in which to develop AI's that would not seek such an activity.
Comment Re:Wait.... Again?! (Score 1) 96
Article is pay-walled unfortunately
Comment Techno mythology (Score 1) 684
Mars, much further away than the Moon, much greater gravity well, no magnetic shield that could protect a terraformed atmosphere (its core is dead).
So why are we hearing about its potential colonisation so much?
Because the dream is a product. It can stay indefinitely in "development" while earning its promoters real world goodie tokens. They get publicity pandering to myths we all grew up with as kids while being able to postpone the dream delivery a couple of decades so as not to be called on it.
Maybe humans will one day create sustainable habitats within the solar system and beyond. I certainly hope so. But not before we deal with a severe resource, energy, pollution and over-population problem here on what is by far the most interesting "rock" in the universe that we know of.
Comment Re:Hardware Decode (Score 0) 104
Only a few years ago, the only consumer versions of Linux was in routers and tvs. With the proliferation of mobile Linux media devices, expect a Linux driver before a windows one.
Former Microsoft Managers Now In Charge of Washington State's Budget 126
reifman writes "The Seattle Times reports, 'For the first time in state history, the Washington state budget is being written by Microsofties,' Representative Ross Hunter has 'tamed his Microsoft-style head-butting with a politician's trust-building.' Senator Andy Hill is 'the first Senate budget chair ever to request Excel files instead of paper spreadsheets.' 'The two must find $1 billion in new money for the state's K-12 system.' Unfortunately, The Times neglects to mention that Hunter and Microsoft are among those behind the deficit and cutbacks in the first place. Hunter helped pass the amnesty bill for Microsoft's $1.5 billion Nevada tax dodge ($4.37 billion if you include impacts from its lobbying to reduce tax rates) that contributed to $4 billion in cuts to K-12 and higher education since 2008. The state has resorted to using Yelp to tax dancing to try to make up the shortfall (for real)."
Competitors Complain To EC That Free Android Is a 'Trojan Horse' 315
First time accepted submitter DW100 writes "Microsoft, Nokia and Oracle have taken it upon themselves to moan to the European Commission about Google's Android dominance, which they say is an underhand bid to control the entire mobile market. The firms are part of the FairSearch group, which has just filed a complaint that Google is using Android as a 'Trojan Horse' to take control of the mobile market and all the related advertising revenue. Microsoft would of course know all about this, being at the end of several similar anti-competitive complaints in the past."
Ask Slashdot: Using a Tablet As a Sole Computing Device? 417
cashman73 writes "My mother's six year old desktop computer finally bit the dust due to an electrical surge. It's out-of-warranty, and not really worth fixing. Plus, I'm 2,500 miles and two time zones away, so I can't exactly troubleshoot things from here. I recently got a new tablet, and even 80% of the things I do are done easier with it. Plus, she really likes the size, convenience, portability, and the screen. Virtually everything she does is simple web browsing, email, light photo sharing but no heavy editing, and other simple tasks. We're thinking that using a tablet as her sole 'computer' might be the best solution here. What are other Slashdotter's experiences using tablets without a separate desktop computer?"
Europe Sets Sights On Asteroid Tracking Radars 44
coondoggie writes "The European Space Agency today said it would develop a radar system that will be capable of tracking space hazards such as asteroids and orbital debris. ESA and France's Office National d'Etudes et Recherches Aérospatiales research center will work with five other partners in France, Spain and Switzerland to this month design a test surveillance radar and develop a $6 million demonstrator model."
Ask Slashdot: Hobbyist-Ready LCD Touch Panel For Embedded Projects? 142
michael_cain writes "I've been asked (by family, friends) to consider several small embedded controller projects. A good starting point for all of them would be a backlit LCD graphics module with touch screen pre-mounted in a plastic enclosure with enough room behind the display for a custom circuit board. 320-by-240 pixels, 3.5 to 4.5 inch diagonal measure, monochrome is sufficient (but color is always cool), easily driven by an AVR or PIC type microcontroller. And priced at a reasonable point for a hobbyist! Anyone seen anything like this?"
Bioethicist Jonathan Moreno Talks Jacked-In Soldiers And Military Neuroscience 117
pigrabbitbear writes "Who's driving a lot of neuro research? The military. Much of it is health related, like figuring out how to make prosthetics work more seamlessly and helping diagnose brain injuries. But the military's involvement highlights the basic ethical quandary of neurological development: When our brains pretty much define who we are, what happens when you start adding tech in there? And what happens when you take it away? Jonathan Moreno is quite possibly the top bioethicist in the country, and along with Michael Tennison, recently penned a fascinating essay on the role and ethics of using neuroscience for national security. He also recently updated his book Mind Wars, a seminal look into the military's work with the brain. In this interview he discusses brain implants, drones, and what will happen when military tech hits the civilian world."
YouTube Identifies Birdsong As Copyrighted Music 730
New submitter eeplox writes "I make nature videos for my YouTube channel, generally in remote wilderness away from any possible source of music. And I purposely avoid using a soundtrack in my videos because of all the horror stories I hear about Rumblefish filing claims against public domain music. But when uploading my latest video, YouTube informed me that I was using Rumblefish's copyrighted content, and so ads would be placed on my video, with the proceeds going to said company. This baffled me. I disputed their claim with YouTube's system — and Rumblefish refuted my dispute, and asserted that: 'All content owners have reviewed your video and confirmed their claims to some or all of its content: Entity: rumblefish; Content Type: Musical Composition.' So I asked some questions, and it appears that the birds singing in the background of my video are Rumblefish's exclusive intellectual property."
Early Plants May Have Caused Massive Glaciation 174
sciencehabit writes with this excerpt from Science: "The first plants to colonize land didn't merely supply a dash of green to a drab landscape. They dramatically accelerated the natural breakdown of exposed rocks, according to a new study, drawing so much planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere that they sent Earth's climate spiraling into a major ice age."
Motorola CEO Blames Open Android Store For Phone Performance Ills 384
angry tapir writes "Motorola's CEO blamed the open Android app store for performance issues on some phones. Of all the Motorola Android devices that are returned, 70 percent come back because applications affect performance, Sanjay Jha, CEO of Motorola Mobility, said during a webcast presentation at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Technology conference."
Real Reason Why the White iPhone 4 Is Delayed 182
tekgoblin writes "There have been numerous reasons why the White iPhone 4 may be delayed with one reason being the color mismatch between the home button and the body. Well this time there is another reason. A source has told CultofMac that the reason for the delay is a light leakage issue caused by the case being clear. Light from the case leaks into pictures taken by the back and front camera on the white iPhone 4, causing distorted pictures. This problem is non-existent on the black iPhone 4, because of its already black case, so Apple has been looking for a solution to this problem, thus the delay of the White iPhone 4 till spring of next year."
