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The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect
Lawrence had ordained that Prime Intellect could not, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. But he had not realized how much harm his super-intelligent creation could perceive, or what kind of action might be necessary to prevent it.
Caroline has been pulled from her deathbed into a brave new immortal Paradise where she can have anything she wants, except the sense that her life has meaning.
Now these two souls are headed for a confrontation which will force them to weigh matters of life and death before a machine that can remake -- or destroy -- the entire Universe. -
The year in big data and data science - O'Reilly Radar
Big data and data science have both been with us for a while. According to McKinsey & Company's May 2011 report on big data, back in 2009 "nearly all sectors in the U.S. economy had at least an average of 200 terabytes of stored data ... per company with more than 1,000 employees." And on the data-science front, Amazon's John Rauser used his presentation at Strata New York (below) to trace the profession of data scientist all the way back to 18th-century German astronomer Tobias Mayer.
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I got an incredible email today from a Penny Arcade reader. Dave shared with me an email chain between him and Ocean Marketing (the folks behind the Avenger controller) Trust me when I tell you that this is one wild ride. I’m serious, Mr. Toad would look at this ride and just give a slow clap while shaking his head. I have tried to arrange this as best I can in chronological order. I’ve also removed email addresses and other private information. So let’s just jump right in, here is Dave’s first mail to Ocean Marketing:
From: Dave
To: Ocean Marketing
Dec 16, 2011, at 1:34 PM
I ordered 2 of the upcoming PS3 controllers (invoice xxxxxxxxx—Nov 3, 2011). Any chance of getting an update of when these items will ship? I’m not really happy about being forced to pay upfront then have the advertised date of “Early December” be completely missed without any sort of update on availability. I really need one of them for a X-mas present as well. Anyways, looking forward to finally using one of these bad boys. Thanks and happy holidays. -
A re-introduction to JavaScript - MDN
Why a re-introduction? Because JavaScript has a reasonable claim to being the world's most misunderstood programming language. While often derided as a toy, beneath its deceptive simplicity lie some powerful language features. 2005 has seen the launch of a number of high-profile JavaScript applications, showing that deeper knowledge of this technology is an important skill for any web developer.
It's useful to start with an idea of the language's history. JavaScript was created in 1995 by Brendan Eich, an engineer at Netscape, and first released with Netscape 2 early in 1996. It was originally going to be called LiveScript, but was renamed in an ill-fated marketing decision to try to capitalize on the popularity of Sun Microsystem's Java language — despite the two having very little in common. This has been a source of confusion ever since. -
Microsoft's Dumbest And Smartest Moves Of 2011 - Windows - Microsoft news - Informationweek
Microsoft's struggle to adapt to a computing market in which the PC is taking a back seat to tablets and smartphones is well known, and much of the company's troubles of late have arisen directly from that market shift. But don't count Redmond out just yet--it had some solid wins in 2011. There were also a number of clunkers. Here's a look at 7 of Microsoft's dumbest and smartest moves of the past year.
1. Skype buy (Smart). -
Studies of deadly H5N1 bird flu mutations test scientific ethics - latimes.com
In a top-security lab in the Netherlands, scientists guard specimens of a super-killer influenza that slays half of those it infects and spreads easily from victim to victim.
It is a beast long feared by influenza experts, but it didn't come from nature. The scientists made it themselves.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
load01 12/28/2011
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