Care to ride a computer-driven helicopter that can perform aerobatic stunts? Well, that won’t be available yet but some geeks managed to developer computer software that takes note of how an RC helicopter is flown and learns from that. After “learning”, the computer then flies the helicopter and does what it has learned on its own. Take note that it’s not auto-pilot. it’s AI pilot.
The computer doesn’t just copy what the human controlling the RC helicopter did. It actually learns how to fly and do stunts. If you don’t believe me then watch this video and see for yourself.
First they taught rat-brains to fly an airplane then made smarter robots with the same technology. I thought that rat brains is the way to go but computer geeks and AI technology seem to be catching up.
I think the pieces of the AI puzzle are starting to make sense and we might see better artificial intelligence sooner than we expected.
Not even NASA is spared from computer virus infection. In fact, not even the International Space Station which is orbiting hundreds of miles above the earth was spared. A low risk virus identified as W32.Gammima.AG was detected on some of the laptop computers aboard the ISS last July 25.
Symantec describes W32.Gammima.AG as a Windows-based worm which spreads by copying itself onto removable media and capable of stealing passwords for online games. It is classified as a very low risk virus on Symantec’s website.
Though the virus poses no threat to the space station, NASA is still serious in finding out how the virus managed to fly itself up into space. If a low-risk virus can do it, then there are many reasons to believe that a high-risk one can also make it up there.
Creating computer brains that have powerful artificial intelligence is hard to do but what if one can use existing brains instead? Meet Gordon. A robot powered by a biological brain made of rat neurons. Gordon’s brain is linked to its system via 60 electrodes that pick up electrical signals produced by the brain cells. Signals are also sent to the brain to tell Gordon if its nearing an object and therefore allow it to avoid hitting it.
This is not the first time that rat brains have been used to control machines. Years back, scientists managed to attach a bunch of rat neurons to a flight simulator which eventually learned to “fly” the simulator effectively.
So, how smart is it? Well, it’s not really a genius but to me it appears to be a faster and easier way to add independent intelligence to machines. I personally won’t be surprised if I see an entire house intelligently managed by a bunch of neurons taken from lab rats or some other animal.
Wouldn’t this spell doomsday? Well, I’m no expert at that but I have to admit that the idea of intelligent rat neurons powering anything that we humans rely on such as transportation, housing or even hospitals sounds scary. I know for sure that “computer brains” can be programmed not to harm humans but I’m not sure about that when it comes to biological brains.
But no worries because the better part of the story is that Gordon can help scientists understand how our brains learn which they hope will tell them more about diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, stroke and brain injuries.
I’ve heard it a lot of times and I’ve seen some that work but is there really such a thing as quality Free TV on the internet? Honestly, I don’t think so. Either you get “free” crappy channels or “free” but old stuff. You can try TVU Player if you want but you won’t be happy with it.
If you really want quality television on your computer - whether it be a laptop or a pc - then you should go for paid services. There are tons out there. Some are expensive and a few are very cheap. But the best ones are those that ask you to pay only for a one-time lifetime membership fee.
I know, the offer of having 10GB of “Spam-free” email is indeed tempting but here are the reasons why I won’t be jumping into Fanbox just yet.
I don’t need another email. Geez, I already have like 5 email accounts so no, thanks.
I don’t need another Desktop. My current Linux desktop is doing just fine. And oh, I don’t think any browser will be a good interface to any “online operating desktop” and allow the user to be productive at the same time. Browsers are just, well browsers so I love to keep it that way.
The online desktop’s “your file anywhere” feature is tempting but with my internet connection, I don’t think I will be uploading my files up there anytime soon. Plus of course, I won’t trust any free service for any of my files.
I may have more reasons why but I guess these three are the main ones.
On the other end, I’d say they did a good job on the interface. Upon logging in, you’ll be greeted by a nice looking splash screen with a progress bar.
Then as soon as you’re in, you’ll see the desktop that looks a lot like Windows Vista - maybe another reason why I didn’t like it.
Yeah, I admit it looks good but that’s about it. Using it is another story…
I recently downloaded a cool free icon set called “Bright” by Min Tran. His website can be found at min.frexy.com and the direct link to the icon set download is here.
The icon set is currently in EPS (vector) format mainly because Min wants to the icons to be editable and scalable. There are however some who just want the icons to be in plain bitmap so I chose to export it to BMP, zip it and put it here.
Smartbro DNS is hijacked by Akratz.com and it’s not a good thing. It’s been more than a week already since I noticed that typing a wrong domain in my browser’s address bar shows me a page with lots of links on it. There are pornographic links and lots of gibberish as well. I am using Linux so the possibility of having adware/spyware on my PC is minimal but I checked anyway. I checked by switching my other laptop and my desktop PC on and tried visiting in a non-existent domain. Surely, they too were showing the same weird page.
Clicking one of the links shows up a page that looks like this:
At this point, I already knew there was something wrong with my network connection - most probably with my ISP which by the way is Smart Bro. I checked with other Smart Bro users and it appears that it’s not everywhere. Some reported the same thing and others reported a normal error page. I searched the internet and found one forum topic that discusses the same problem.
The Solution
At the forum, they mentioned that a good solution would be to use OpenDNS. I’ve already heard of OpenDNS before but I didn’t really give much time to learn more about it until now. Good thing I tried OpenDNS because it did fix my problem and DNS lookups appear to be faster.
They provide easy to follow instructions on how to change your DNS which is a big help non-techies but he best part is that it’s totally free. After changing my DNS, I decided to sign-up for a free account to make use of OpenDNS features such as adult website filtering which will help me make sure that my children are visiting kid-friendly websites only.
Who is Akratz? The whois info for the domain says the domain owner is from Netherlands but that can be spoofed. It also appears that Akratz not only hi-jacks DNS but also websites, at least according to this forum. Whoever they are, it’s pretty obvious that the person owning the domain is a very evil hacker that must be put behind bars.
Lastly, kudos to the guys and gals at OpenDNS. You’re helping make the internet a better and safer place for all of us.
While surfing the net trying to look for a way to install a decent office suite on my Motorokr E6 so I can do some work while traveling, I came across a YouTube video that shows something different. The video shows the Motorokr E6 running DOS, Turbo C and Windows 3.1. I am amazed to say the least at what this phone can do.
If it can run Windows 3.1 then I guess I can install one of the old spreadsheet and word processing applications as well but I guess that’d be overkill. What this guy has done with his E6 is still cool though.
Ok, I know that’s quite a claim but I can’t help being proud for being an Ubuntu user. The popular Mac Air got cracked in just two minutes flat at the recent PWN to OWN hacking competition. Geez, I’d be scared to buy one of ‘em expensive Macs if that’s the case.
Ubuntu - (the original) uses Gnome as its desktop manager
Kubuntu - (my personal favorite) uses KDE as its desktop manager
Xubuntu - (the tiny one) uses XFCE as its desktop manager resulting in a simple but fast desktop. I installed in one of my slower laptops
Edubuntu - (the wise one) also uses Gnome but is designed more for educational purposes
Ubuntu - according to the Edubuntu website - is an ancient African word meaning “humanity to others”. Now that’s some meaning huh? Based on the ever solid Debian Linux-based operating system, all members of the Ubuntu family is easy to upgrade and maintain making it a perfect Linux for those who want to try the free operating system.
Get your copy now - it’s free so piracy won’t be an issue here. After all, why pay for some expensive operating system only to find out that it can be PWNed in just 2 minutes?
As soon as I found out that Google released an API for Google Translate, I quickly viewed their documentation and tried it for myself and I can sum it up in just one word - SWEET!
It uses AJAX which means that you don’t have to mess around with server based implementations such as SOAP or REST. All that’s needed is a Javascript enabled browser and you’re all set. It supports 13 different languages and a total of 29 different language pairs.
With the release of this API, building multi-lingual websites becomes trivial since all you basically need is copy and paste a few lines of code from the documentation and modify it a bit and you’re all set. Check out my sample implementation here: Google Translate Working Example.
Care to ride a computer-driven helicopter that can perform aerobatic stunts? Well, that won’t be available yet but some geeks managed to developer computer software that takes note of how an RC helicopter is flown and learns from that. After “learning”, the computer then flies the helicopter and does what it has learned on its own. Take note that it’s not auto-pilot. it’s AI pilot.
