...more recent posts
Glennf has written yet another introduction to blogging for the Seattle Times. Nothing new here, but a pretty good job for the uninitiated.
Glennf has written yet another introduction to blogging for the Seattle Times. Nothing new here, but a pretty good job for the uninitiated.
For future reference: XML-RPC from PHP.
For future reference: XML-RPC from PHP.
Dry wall is going up in the new office. Bright blue Cat5 has been strung to every work station. Finally some movement.
Dry wall is going up in the new office. Bright blue Cat5 has been strung to every work station. Finally some movement.
Danny Hillis red herring interview. He's leaving Disney, where he held one of the incredibly super-cool "disney fellow" positions. That's one of those ever dwindling "pure research" jobs where you get a big budget, and no requirements to make anything particularly marketable. Hillis made a giant mechanical clock out of nothing but stone age tools that should run for 10,000 years (it gets wound by the stream of tourists who visit the site and take the tour which climbs up through the inner workings - I said it was giant.) Cool. Anyway, he's also responsible for more traditional high tech, like the idea of massively parallel computers. He's got the goods, and I think he knows where we're going.
"...[t]hat's why Bill Joy's article struck such a chord. People are uneasy because they literally cannot imagine the world their children will live in. But I don't think intelligent machines will happen suddenly. They'll happen gradually. For example, people believed a machine couldn't beat a human at chess, or thought it'd be the end of the world. Then Deep Blue happened, and it didn't matter -- people still play chess, though machines are better at it. We'll see lots of steps like that...."
Danny Hillis red herring interview. He's leaving Disney, where he held one of the incredibly super-cool "disney fellow" positions. That's one of those ever dwindling "pure research" jobs where you get a big budget, and no requirements to make anything particularly marketable. Hillis made a giant mechanical clock out of nothing but stone age tools that should run for 10,000 years (it gets wound by the stream of tourists who visit the site and take the tour which climbs up through the inner workings - I said it was giant.) Cool. Anyway, he's also responsible for more traditional high tech, like the idea of massively parallel computers. He's got the goods, and I think he knows where we're going.
"...[t]hat's why Bill Joy's article struck such a chord. People are uneasy because they literally cannot imagine the world their children will live in. But I don't think intelligent machines will happen suddenly. They'll happen gradually. For example, people believed a machine couldn't beat a human at chess, or thought it'd be the end of the world. Then Deep Blue happened, and it didn't matter -- people still play chess, though machines are better at it. We'll see lots of steps like that...."
Great time last night. I hope this becomes the tradition it is shaping up to be. A little wobbly this morning, but I agree with Alex that it must be that sunspot.
Oh how I wish I had been taping the conversation that was flying at the Local. Bill, Alex, Steve and Tom were dropping some serious science. Our one guest seemed quite well versed in modern music, art, and philosophy, but I'm not sure he fully realized who he was tangling with. I've always been impressed by the level of conversation, but I'm moving toward evangelist. You guys rock.
In the brief part of the conversation where I knew anything about what was being said we did some talking about XML. The link I posted yesterday seemed to have lit a light bulb or two. Here's the offical Tim Berners-lee "Semantic Web roadmap." That's the view from "20,000 feet." Here's the view from 50,000 feet which will fill in any gaps in your knowledge of the pre-semantic web.
Perhaps more interesting, here is Jorn Barger's (of robotwisdon fame) nicely to-the-point argument for why all of this will never work. I love the start: "Every undergrad, encountering Artifical Intelligence for the first time, imagines they can solve its central
problem... until they actually try it."
Great time last night. I hope this becomes the tradition it is shaping up to be. A little wobbly this morning, but I agree with Alex that it must be that sunspot.
Oh how I wish I had been taping the conversation that was flying at the Local. Bill, Alex, Steve and Tom were dropping some serious science. Our one guest seemed quite well versed in modern music, art, and philosophy, but I'm not sure he fully realized who he was tangling with. I've always been impressed by the level of conversation, but I'm moving toward evangelist. You guys rock.
In the brief part of the conversation where I knew anything about what was being said we did some talking about XML. The link I posted yesterday seemed to have lit a light bulb or two. Here's the offical Tim Berners-lee "Semantic Web roadmap." That's the view from "20,000 feet." Here's the view from 50,000 feet which will fill in any gaps in your knowledge of the pre-semantic web.
Perhaps more interesting, here is Jorn Barger's (of robotwisdon fame) nicely to-the-point argument for why all of this will never work. I love the start: "Every undergrad, encountering Artifical Intelligence for the first time, imagines they can solve its central
problem... until they actually try it."