cabalamat

309 ms·

1. 2581.▲
   by cabalamat 18y ago

   > program induction is in fact too general to be very interesting Intelligence is general and is capable of coping with novel problems. AI therefore invovles building machines which have that level of generality. To say this isn't inter
2. 2582.▲
   by cabalamat 18y ago

   Rumours of its death have been exaggerated. 99% of programming is sequential.
3. 2583.▲
   by cabalamat 18y ago

   Surely my argument is more general than that? I.e. it applies to more things than just limiting the number of taxis. A regulated taxi system will differ in some ways from an unregulated system. (If it doesn't then the regulation is so light
4. 2584.▲
   by cabalamat 18y ago

   The problem of working out what a program does given its input and output is a very general one. Maybe there could be a competition for programs that do this? (Like the Loebner Prize, but more sensible since the Loebner Prize doesn't really
5. 2585.▲
   by cabalamat 18y ago

   If taxi medallions cost a million dollars (one sold for $600,000 last year -- http://www.autoblog.com/2007/06/01/nyc-taxi-medallion-sold-f... ) then they are clearly an example of rent-seeking behaviour that rips off the public. Why would
6. 2586.▲
   by cabalamat 18y ago

   Taxi regulations generally involve limiting the number of taxis. This has two effects (1) they are more expensive than what a market price would be, and (2) you can't always get a taxi when you want one. So taxi regulation definitely cause
7. 2587.▲
   by cabalamat 18y ago

   It sounds to me like an offer of $40 an hour for 100 hours of work. If I was a student, I'd probably consider this a good deal. If I was an American taxpayer, less so.
8. 2588.▲
   by cabalamat 18y ago

   I know loads of people who aren't techies by any means but use or are considering using Firefox or Apple or Ubuntu. I can easily imagine Firefox getting 30% market share.
9. 2589.▲
   by cabalamat 18y ago

   Give Lessig the job.
10. 2590.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    Papert is a Logo interpreter written in JavaScript -- http://logo.twentygototen.org/
11. 2591.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    Then host the site in a country where prostitution is legal.
12. 2592.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    Running Windows is not the same as being a slave. Of course not. I didn't say it was. Is the CPU Open Source? Why is it not a problem to use proprietary hardware? Open Source processor designs exist. It wouldn't surprise me if in future
13. 2593.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    Technically you don't own FLOSS software either True: own can mean the ability to do with it as you will, or the ability to exclude others from it. With FLOSS you can do the first but not the second. If you have a bunch of engineers who
14. 2594.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    I disagree with the article where it says: Tools and languages are like foreign languages - if you don’t use it, you lose it. You don't lose it, you just get rusty. I haven't coded in C, C++ or Smalltalk in years. If I started again, it w
15. 2595.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    For $0 I can get Linux, Apache, PHP, MySQL, Python, Django, Ruby, Rails, Java, MediaWiki, Mailman, Wordpress, OpenOffice, etc, etc. With Microsoft, after 3 years, you have to start paying for everything. With the software I've listed above,
16. 2596.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    it seems to me that a PC that is capable of running Linux AND Windows is more free than a PC that is only capable of running Linux That's like saying a society where some people are free and some people are slaves is more free than a soci
17. 2597.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    I find it annoying too. Websites should realise that users don't mind them making money -- in fact most users want their web hosts to be financially secure, as that means they'll continue to provide the service -- and that users know that w
18. 2598.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    Why use Ubuntu for servers? In my case because I use it on the desktop, I like it and I'm used to it. Ubuntu may well be similar to Debian, however I've never used Debian and I know Ubuntu is similar to Ubuntu.
19. 2599.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    phpBB sucks because it's free There's plenty of free software that doesn't suck, e.g. Linux, Apache, Wordpress, etc. Therefore freeness doesn't cause suckiness.
20. 2600.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    That is advice up with which I will not put.
21. 2601.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    $1 for 200k views is very little. Typical CPM with adsense is between $1 and $10, so for 200k views you might typically expect between $200 and $2000. Having said that, Slashdot readers are more likely than average to use ad-blocking softwa
22. 2602.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    am I the only one that thinks phpBB sucks? No, you're not! That can be his idea: build a better BB
23. 2603.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    Unfortunately it's the combination of new technologies and existing attitudes that are the problem. For example, if you ask the average politician what's an acceptable level of crime, he'll say "none". The average member of the public will
24. 2604.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    You're right that the UK does need to end the surveillance culture. But to say we need another leader "like Thatcher" is way off the mark, given that the surveillance culture and erosion of civil liberties started under her (and accelerate
25. 2605.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    So the universities do it because it's a money-making proposition?
26. 2606.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    For the benefit of non-American people like me, can someone explain what this thing with athletic scholarships in US universities is all about? To me it just seems silly, like a sports team having academic scholarships would be.
27. 2607.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    China's growth has been about 9% per annum fairly steadily for the last quarter-century. America's growth has been about 3% over the same period. So it's not as if I'm using just one year's figures.
28. 2608.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    Really? My brother's a businessman, not a programmer, and uses Linux on a daily basis (in fact, he started using it before me). I have lots of friends who use Linux; many of them are not programmers/hackers. Quite often my non-technical fri
29. 2609.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    I agree. If I was designing a programming language, then appending to the end of a file, appending to the end of a string, and writing to stdout would all look the same. Actually, I am designing a programming language, and they look like th
30. 2610.▲
    by cabalamat 18y ago

    I expect so. And every local authority. (In the same way that local authorities currently use "anti-terrorist" legislation to snoop on people to make sure they are sorting their rubbish correctly).