Rants, Raves, and Rhetoric v4

Tag: machine

  • TED Talk: Jennings v Watson

    Deep Blue versus Kasparov was an pivotal moment for me. At the time I was playing lots of chess on the computer. (And usually losing.) So the prospect the best player in the world cannot beat a computer was a depressing prospect.  Maybe it is a sign of how much I had matured (or immatured)…

  • TED Talk: We Are All Cyborgs

    Technology is evolving us, says Amber Case, as we become a screen-staring, button-clicking new version of homo sapiens. We now rely on “external brains” (cell phones and computers) to communicate, remember, even live out secondary lives. But will these machines ultimately connect or conquer us? Case offers surprising insight into our cyborg selves.

  • Superhero Economy

    Watched a number of episodes of Justice League Unlimited today. Buildings, roads, and machines get pulverized by the violent actions. Someone rebuilds all the destroyed stuff because in the next episode, everything is pristine to get pulverized again. So much rebuilding must suck for insurance premiums. However, it does ensure lots of construction employment, material…

  • The Glorious Four Eyed Chrome

    A site called The Hero Factory lets you make your own comic character. This is the one it gave me. There are other similar sites: Hero Machine FaceYourManga MyHero Originally uploaded by Ezra F

  • Digital Legacy

    A book on time management in talking about long-term goal planning suggests we define the legacy we wish to leave. Coming from academia, I typically think of a legacy as a name on a building, an applicant with an alum for a parent, or a scholarship. However, the artifacts left behind by previous cultures are…

  • Anthropomorphism

    Do you talk about computers, software, or web sites as manifesting human-like behaviors? Personally, I have. At work, we manage several machines who collectively provide the GeorgiaVIEW service. When a machine is completely unresponsive, then we refer to it as having died. When a machine stops a performance issue, we refer to it as happy.…

  • RE 2007: Administering Sakai

    . Timeline: Oct 2006: Faculty committee selected Sakai over Blackboard Vista Jan 2007: Developed a roll-out plan. Jun 2007: Pilot Aug 2007: Production Still: Some classes still running on CE4.1, being phased out of use. Needs – no more than 5% of code custom written by GA Tech or professional services. Integration with Banner. Grade…

  • On the Fourth through Sixth Loops of Ready 2 Wear

    I really have to stop listening to the same song played over and over. It may affect my thinking…. We had another node crash due to the Sun JVM issue. Our start script failed to make a file in /var so the node did not become fully operational as expected. While waiting for those with…

  • links for 2007-08-22

    Garbage Collection in the Java HotSpot Virtual Machine (tags: java performance garbage-collection)