Clipmarks | luixxiul's clips

Give time to develop artificial brain

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 15:38:47 GMT

clipped by: luixxiul

A Canadian company, Intelligence Realm, last week launched a distributed computing project on Linux called "Artificial intelligence - Reverse engineering the brain". The company has invited members of the public to volounteer and donate computer time to help this project develop artificial intelligence (AI).

Tags: science, distributed computing, artificial intelligence, ai

McLaren excluded from constructors' championship!

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 21:29:11 GMT

clipped by: luixxiul
clipper's remarks: What a mess!

Clip Source: www.f1-live.com

The FIA convened a World Motor Sport Council meeting in Paris to pore over allegations that McLaren, this season's pacesetters in both the drivers and constructors' competitions, benefited from a leaked 780-page dossier of secret Ferrari technical information.

As well as losing all their constructors' points, the British-owned team were fined 100 million (US) dollars.

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso have however escaped losing the points they have won.

Tags: f1, mclaren, alonso, hamilton, ferrari

科学の方法的懐疑論

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 12:20:19 GMT

clipped by: luixxiul
clipper's remarks: Critics on fundamental activism (both sides) of global warming; philosophy of natural science.

Clip Source: wiredvision.jp

さて、この史実を冷静に胸において、現在ぼくらが直面している地球温暖化という問題、それが「科学で検証されつつある」という事実、そのことをよく考え直すことも必要だろう。少なくとも、「熱狂」できるほどの根拠があるといえるのかどうか。ぼくらは、歴史上のある一時点に立っているだけだ、ということを常に胸に刻まなければならない。

ぼくらが経験しているこの海洋や大陸や気象に関する仮説は、最終的に、ヴェリコフスキー・タイプのものだろうか、それともウェゲナー・タイプのものなのだろうか。もちろんそれは、今は結論の出ないことだし、いつか将来において決着のつくことだろう。でも大事なのは、この仮説について、「今は結論のでないことだし、いつか将来において決着のつくことだろう」という自覚の上で、ぼくらは何かの意思決定をする、そういうことなのだ。それがどんな意思決定であるにせよ、それは「熱狂」ではなく「熟慮」を持ってなされるべきだし、それでこそ責任がとれるというものだ。

そういうことを考える上で、科学についての歴史と哲学は、とても大事だと思う。歴史は、自然科学的な結論を与えてはくれないけれど、(だって時代も環境も状況も異なるから)、でも自然科学には逆立ちしたって語れない何かを教えてくれるはずだから。

Tags: environment, global warming, activism

NO to the Microsoft Office format as an ISO standard

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 10:52:44 GMT

clipped by: luixxiul
clipper's remarks: Follow-up: http://www.wired.com/software/coolapps/news/2007/08/ooxml_vote

Clip Source: www.noooxml.org

NO to the Microsoft Office format as an ISO standard

I ask the national members of ISO to vote "NO" in the ballot of ISO DIS 29500 (Office OpenXML or OOXML format) for the following reasons:

There is already a standard ISO26300 named Open Document Format (ODF): a dual standard adds costs, uncertainty and confusion to industry, government and citizens;

This standard proposal was not created by bringing together the experience and expertise of all interested parties (such as the producers, sellers, buyers, users and regulators), but by Microsoft alone.

There is no provable implementation of the OOXML specification: Microsoft Office 2007 produces a special version of OOXML, not a file format which complies with the OOXML specification;

Tags: microsoft, office, software, xml, open source, activism

artificial intelligence development with distributed computing

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 12:26:32 GMT

clipped by: luixxiul
clipper's remarks: Cool idea

Clip Source: www.tectonic.co.za

Similar to other distributed computing projects, like Seti@Home or Folding@Home, this project is part of a larger project that is reverse engineering the brain in order to achieve AI. The project will implement BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing).

Tags: ai, distributed computing, boinc, science, cool

SBC Archiver: high performance archiver

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 17:04:45 GMT

clipped by: luixxiul
clipper's remarks: Good archiver!

Clip Source: sbcarchiver.netfirms.com

SBC Archiver

SBC Archiver is a file archiver application with strong cryptography and high performance file compression.

SBC v0.970 (revision 2), WIN32/WinXP/Win2k/WinNT

Location [Finland/Slovakia/Taiwan/Austria]

Tags: computer, compress, file, performance

American killed 3 UK soldiers in Afghanistan

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 17:31:11 GMT

clipped by: luixxiul
clipper's remarks: Accidentally or not?

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

'Friendly fire' kills UK soldiers

Three British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan by so-called friendly fire from American fighter planes, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.

The MoD said the soldiers, from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, were killed at around 1830 local time (1500 BST) on Thursday.

It is understood they died when the planes dropped a bomb near their patrol in Helmand province.

Tags: america, united kingdom, england, afghanistan

what is the best compression programm?

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 12:50:38 GMT

clipped by: luixxiul
clipper's remarks: there are a number of compression programms better than ZIP or RAR. Try what you think are good!

Clip Source: www.maximumcompression.com

Q. Now, what is the best compression program?.
A. That depends on your definition of 'best'. Globally speaking there are three kind of compressors / archivers.

The best programs in this group, i.e. the ones getting the best possible compression, are WinRK (using PWCM mode), PAQ8, PAQAR, Durilca and SLIM. At the moment WinRK (PWCM) and PAQ8 are the two best compressors of the five, but they are also much slower then Durilca and SLIM (to give you an idea; PAQAR in -8 mode does about 5-7 KB/s on a slightly overclocked AMD Barton 2800+). If you have files with embedded images (e.g. Word DOC files) use PAQ8, it will recognize them and separately compress them, boosting compression significantly. Also note all mentioned programs with the exception of WinRK are free of cost.

Tags: computer, tech, cool, compression, windows, winrk

Evolution theory challenged by that Fundamentalism

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:34:31 GMT

clipped by: luixxiul
clipper's remarks: Fundementalism is not only of Islam. It's of Chiristianity, too, right?

Clip Source: www.wired.com

An anti-evolutionary Christian extremist suspected of sending threatening letters to biology professors at the University of Colorado has gone on the lam, according to a staff member familiar with a police investigation into the matter.

In the last year, a series of threatening letters and e-mails -- the most recent referring to "killing the enemies of Christian society" -- were sent to several professors at the biology department in Boulder. (Read more on the developing story in the Wired Science blog.)

How serious are the threats? It's unknown, but the letters appear to mark one of the most aggressive statements yet in a growing debate over the place of evolutionary theory in education.

Tags: christianity, fundamentalism, religion, science

Volunteer computing: grid or not grid?

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 05:26:19 GMT

clipped by: luixxiul
clipper's remarks: written by Dr David Anderson, founder of BOINC

Clip Source: www.isgtw.org

Opinion - Volunteer computing: grid or not grid?

“Volunteer computing” allows people to donate the use of their PCs to science projects. Early examples include GIMPS, Distributed.net, SETI@home, and Folding@Home. Today, volunteer computing is being used in biology, climate study, epidemiology, physics, and more, and most of these projects use BOINC software.

Is volunteer computing a form of grid computing? Both are forms of distributed computing that try to more fully utilize existing resources. However, they differ in several essential respects:

Tags: computer, internet, technology, volunteer

No Link Between Cosmic Rays and Global Warming

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 11:07:43 GMT

clipped by: luixxiul

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

No Link Between Cosmic Rays and Global Warming

This connection between the Sun's 11-year cycle of sunspot and solar wind activity and the Earth's deflection of cosmic rays was offered up as a possible natural explanation for global warming.

But T. Sloan from the University of Lancaster and A.W. Wolfendale from Durham University have looked carefully at the evidence and found it unconvincing. They published their results in a new paper called Cosmic Rays and Global Warming. Their research will be presented at the 30th International Cosmic Ray Conference, held in Merida Mexico from July 3 - July 11, 2007.

Tags: global warming, science

Fachhochschule: Kampf um Ausbildungsplätze

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 21:08:54 GMT

clipped by: luixxiul

Clip Source: www.vol.at

Fachhochschule: Kampf um Ausbildungsplätze

Für das Diplomstudium Sozialarbeit an der Fachhochschule Vorarlberg gibt es einen regelrechten Kampf um die Ausbildungsplätze. 140 Kandidaten bewarben sich für die 33 zur Verfügung stehenden Studienplätze.

Für das Diplomstudium Sozialarbeit muss man schon soziales Engagement, berufliche Erfahrung und Teamfähigkeit mitbringen, sagt der Studienleiter der Fachhochschule Vorarlberg Frederic Fredersdorf laut ORF. Doch das allein reicht nicht aus: man muss auch das ausgeklügelte Aufnahmeverfahren bestehen, um einen der 33 zur Verfügung stehenden Studienplätze zu ergattern.

Tags: studium

Amazing guitar playing!

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 15:58:39 GMT

clipped by: luixxiul
clipper's remarks: Amazing!

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: cool, music, guitar, play

PS3GRID: PS3 Used For Biomedical Research

Sun, 17 Jun 2007 18:44:12 GMT

clipped by: luixxiul

Clip Source: www.psxextreme.com

PS3GRID: PS3 Used For Biomedical Research

It's called PS3GRID, which is...well, they can explain it better than we can:

"PS3GRID is a volunteer computing project based on the PlayStation3 and BOINC for full-atom molecular dynamics simulations and other scientific applications specially optimized for the Cell processor. Your contribution is very important because our Cell MD molecular dynamics software runs over an order of magnitude faster on the PlayStation3 opening the way to innovative computational experiments."

Tags: computer, cool, boinc, ps3, science

Reporters without Borders Opens Second Life Office

Sat, 05 May 2007 12:37:41 GMT

clipped by: luixxiul

Clip Source: freshtakes.typepad.com

Reporters without Borders Opens Second Life Office

Celebrating today’s World Press Freedom Day, Paris-based Reporters sans frontiers / Reporters Without Borders opened their virtual offices in Second Life.

Prominently displayed outside their offices are 34 world leaders dubbed as “predators of press freedom.” You can access biography notecards of each.

Tags: journalism, second life