Tuesday, August 30, 2005

GM will launch self-driving car in 2008

Check out the post at engadget. This is very exciting. I really didn't expect any car manufacturer to release this before 2015, so even if they miss the 2008 mark, it's great news.

The original article is A Car That (Really) Drives Itself and states that this model is for the European market. Because of stiffer product liability in the USA, we are unlikely to see this feature on US models until the technology is proven to be safe.

I really want self-driving cars to work out. I envision a day, a couple decades after self-driving cars become available, when it is illegal to drive a car on a public roadway. And I look forward to it.

That may sound surprising coming from me, considering that my political views are continuing to move toward the anarchic. However, most of the traffic laws as they are written today are basically victimless crimes and self-driving cars would make those laws irrelevant as your car will be the ideal driver.

Monday, August 29, 2005

Get ready to be indestructible!

Ok, maybe you won't quite be indestructible, but what if you could re-grow damaged limbs and organs? Sound like sci-fi? Well, scientists have already managed to give mice that ability. See: It's a miracle: mice regrow hearts

The day when everyone's a genius, lives forever, and never sleeps is closer than you think.

How to look like a UNIX guru

Do you already know some *nix but want to look like a guru? Try the concise "How to look like a UNIX guru."

Thursday, August 25, 2005

The Real Me

I took this personality test. I'll leave it to the people who know me to decide how accurate it is.

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Stability results were moderately low which suggests you are worrying, insecure, emotional, and anxious.

Orderliness results were moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly organized, reliable, neat, and hard working at the expense of flexibility, efficiency, spontaneity, and fun.

Extraversion results were low which suggests you are very reclusive, quiet, unassertive, and secretive.

Friday, August 12, 2005

Asterisk again

Back in march, I blogged about Asterisk. Now I'm going to do it again. Here's another article about setting up an Asterisk PBX: "ISP-In-A-Box: Installing a Free Asterisk PBX Phone System" I'm really going to have to try this out some day.

The geek level of this project is just too tempting for me to pass up forever. The only downside is that I'll have to add yet another computer to my collection and I already have 6. Wait, what am I saying? That's not a downside, that's an upside! Asterisk, here I come!

Thursday, August 11, 2005

ZETA's off the path.

Zeta is, essentially, the new version of BeOS. Unfortunately, it looks like yellowTab has made at least one mistake. Your copy needs to be authorized, like Windows.

The Author of the review had this to say:

"The activation screen becomes more of a nag screen than anything else, although it is clear that yellowTAB has concerns about losing sales to piracy, a problem that any alternative operating system running on generic x86 hardware must inevitably face."

In my view, getting hung up on how you're losing money to piracy is the last thing a publisher of an alternate OS should do. As long as you don't provide any tech support to pirate users, the pirate copies don't actually cost you anything, and you do in fact get something in return: a larger installed base. Which, for an alternate OS, is worth the lost revenue. Don't be surprised when yellowTab meets the same fate as Be, Inc.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

The Metaverse is Coming.

David Wong, of PointlessWasteOfTime.com, has written an article entitled "A World of Warcraft World." Although accused of being primarily a joke article, it is actually pretty insightful, like much of Wong's work.

This article lays out (with a good dose of humor) how a metaverse, or virtual on-line universe, might evolve out of MMORPGs. Definitely worth a read.

MWM: Computer God, Slight Loser.

I'm Married, I'm White, I'm Male. I'm also a Computer God according to NerdTests.com! I scored a 95 on their Computer Geek Test. A quote from my results: "Step aside Bill Gates, Linus Torvalds, and Steve Jobs... You are by far the SUPREME COMPUTER GOD!!!"

My ego sufficiently stoked, I decided to take their Loser Quiz. And the results were:

I am 79% loser. What about you? Click here to find out!

Yes! I am only a slight loser! Joy of Joys, Happy Day! How much of a loser are you?