Teaching Language to a Robot. An article by National

Geographic talks about teaching language to a robot. In some of the experiments they used a modified AIBO. [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service][National Geographic]

Interesting, left to their own devices, the robots (modified AIBOs) would develop their own language from a set of arbitrary syllables.I  wonder what would happen should the robots each be taught a different language, and then were to meet? Would they form a pidgin/creole in order to communicate? Time will tell.

10:12:53 PM    

Give Me Wireless Or... Well, Give Me Wireless!.

End of the Road for the Unconnected Handheld?

"Recently we had a chance to try a slightly different approach to wireless Internet access and e-mail using a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone, the Sony Ericsson T68, and a Compaq iPaq H3835 with a Socket Bluetooth CF card. Once we set up a dial-up networking account for our existing EarthLink account using Socket's excellent Connection Manager software, we were able to browse the Web and check e-mail wireless from anywhere--we didn't even need to take the 2.9-ounce phone out of our shirt pockets to connect (or disconnect).

Before long, expect to see nearly all handhelds ship with some form of wireless access. And in the short term, if you can pick up a wireless-enabled handheld for between $50 and $100 more than a standard PDA, you should give it some serious thought." [ZDNet]

While I like the unique features of the Sony Clie NR-70V, I'm not as jazzed about it as I would be if it had wireless connections. New reality: I won't be buying a new PDA that doesn't have wireless capabilities. Even if the network support isn't quite there yet, it will be. Soon.

[The Shifted Librarian]

OK, here is the info I promised: The stick can currently be ordered for $210.25 from here.  News release here [Palminfocenter], and here [Sony Japan]. Apparently, it is supposed to have a price of around $155.00, so the price above may reflect some of what I call the early adopter tax. More info here.

I'd pay $75.00 for the card, and so far no one has one for sale on Ebay, so I guess I'll have to wait. It's just as well, I have no other Bluetooth devices as of yet, and my cell carrier has no Bluetooth phones (yet), so I can be patient, for now.  

9:56:56 PM    

Wired: "For a perfect example of the changing dynamic between the GPU and CPU, look at the Xbox. It uses a special version of Nvidia's nForce chipset, built around a tricked-out GeForce3 to handle graphics and sound. Microsoft paid Nvidia more than it did Intel for its 733-MHz Pentium III. For Huang, it's a proof of concept." [lawrence's notebook]

5:31:03 PM    

Why I am buying Nvidia's stock (Wes, do you agree?):

1. Graphics processors are chewing up cycles faster than the flatlined PC CPU.  Usage equals demand.  Control of the interface is extremely important.
2. The parallel architecture of graphics processors allow it to boost price performance at a 2 to 1 rate over PC CPUs.  A doubling rate of 6 vs. 18 months.  Nvidia's chips have twice the number of transistors the Pentium 4 has.
3. There is going to be convergence between the graphics used to create movies and games.  This is going to be huge.  Imagine if the Star Wars game looked as good as the movie -- the sales would be huge.
4. Nvidia will likely acquire AMD to add CPU functionality as a side feature of its chips (to move beyond their joint venture).  That means over time the price of a multimedia PC using an AMD/Nvidia combined chip could be 30% lower than an Intel powered model.
5. Microsoft is likely to create a home server that is tightly integrated (following on the heals of the Xbox's second generation).  An AMD/Nvidia chip could be central to that new box.  It's also likely that the brand of the chip used will be subsumed into the general conumer electronics style marketing that this new home server will use.  That loss of branding will hurt Intel.

[John Robb's Radio Weblog]

5:30:44 PM    

Toshiba's iPod Competitor [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]

Interesting, it has a removable 5 GB drive. Assuming that it's in a format that allows you to put in a larger sized drive, and the 5 GB is more a matter of price to market consideration, you'll be able to fit all your data on a small removable disk, and since the disks are the same size/format as PC cards, I imagine you could easily swap them out as needed. Given that Kensington's version of these disks can handle up to 200G of operating shock, I think there is little to worry about in terms of dropping/data loss.

5:15:07 PM    

Milking The Cow Dry Of Every Drop Is Pretty Short-sighted. "In reference to the San Diego Union Tribune story about royalties on used CD sales, Rick Abruzzo has this though:

'If tampering with emerging technologies to extract more money from consumers wasn't enough, the music business is at it again. This time they want to tax used CDs extra as new music sales go flat. This 'royalty' could kill a place like Ameoba. I can imagine the RIAA sending lawyers to garage sales and flea markets to extort money from small vendors. What give the music industry special privileges over any other industry? Used cars, Used furniture, Used Japanese girls underwear, where could it stop?' " [pberry: Radio Edition]

[The Shifted Librarian]

Missed this one yesterday. Car manufacturers have no right to money from the sale of used cars, nor do clothing manufacturers, makers of sports equipment, writers/publishers of books, or artists of their paintings. Why the hell do record labels think they should get paid? This is ridiculous and I sincerely hope it gets shot down.

10:01:14 AM    

Police May Search Bus Riders, Minus the Speech. The Supreme Court ruled Monday that in conducting random searches on buses, the police need not advise passengers that they are free to refuse permission to be searched. By Linda Greenhouse. [New York Times: Politics]

This seems to be bad day for civil liberties.

9:57:49 AM    

Morons.org: Graduating students threatened with arrest for silently protesting Bush's grad speech. [via Boing Boing Blog] [Jake's Radio 'Blog]

If this is true, this is a terrible thing, and speaks volumes about our current president. The voice of dissent is what has made this country great, and to silence it, to even threaten those who would protest silently and peacefully is a horrible example to put forward, and the start of a slippery slide down into repression.

9:53:48 AM    

IM Notification Makes Perfect Sense. Weblog Alert Service Wanted.

"Guru Scott Loftesness issues his request:  Wanted: A Weblog Alert Service. Here's a request to the weblog development community.

Scott's right. As more and more weblogs come online-- and my time is getting shorter, I want a quick compact way of knowing if something new's is posted in weblogs I want to read." [Mary Wehmeier's Blog Du Jour]

Simon Fell is working on blogToaster, which seems to fit the bill. When I first read Mary Lu's post, I thought Scott was calling for a way to be notified of newly-created blogs, not newly-updated ones. I'd like to see an automatic notification that a new user can toggle on to notify the world of a birthed blog. I'm sure Dave gets immediate notice of new sites on his Radio server, but there should be something cross-tool for this.

[Jenny Levine: Tech Goddess]

Hmmm, if there was only a way to get a notification of the favorites from this page within Radio, you would have a feed of all the latest, or just your favorites.

9:49:08 AM