I've decided to move to WordPress, blogger's functionalilty is limited.
The new address is; http://lifeamongthemachines.wordpress.com/
-Dante
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
The atypical computer user
Let's face it, unless you've spent a good few years learning about computers, and £60 each month keeping up to date, your going to know bugger all about these mystical black boxes that sit on your desk, letting you buy and sell, read the news and watch TV.
Case in point; I've just been round my neighborhood, looking for someone who owns the wireless connection 'Free Porn :>' , it's a Belkin wireless system thats become infected, it's got no encryption and from what I saw, it's spewing out porn (of the hardcore and paedophilic variety) and a virus which attacks all computers in local meatspace every half hour. I've narrowed it down to 6 suspect houses, but I'll need to check later.
Second case in point: After the above, I went round to another neighbors house, he himself has little use or knowledge of a computer and his children are...well, thick when it comes to machines.
He only uses eBay, but his kids use Bebo, Limewire, and a few other programs which promise free games. On top of that, he's got an HP taskbar for printers (which makes no sense as he's using a Cannon printer), the virtual keyboard, MSN messneger and whatnot keep popping up at startup, he's using Internet Explorer, RealPlayer, Quicktime, Microsoft Office, no anti-virus (because he installed a demo of Norton 360, which leaves behind crap after it's been uninstalled preventing anything other then a Norton product being installed) and to add the cream to this shit-cake of a computer; he's running Vista.
Which means he has a computer quite capable of running Crysis just so he has special effects running. All the while, his beefy machine is struggling to keep up with it, often requiring five minutes to do an action after it's been started.
At this point, ladies and gentlemen, I'm banging my head agaisnt the wall, quite sure I'm in the 'geek' department of Guantanomo.
But, eventually I;
*phew*
I, like many others, wish that people would take care of their computers.
The truth is, the computers need to take care of their people.
Case in point; I've just been round my neighborhood, looking for someone who owns the wireless connection 'Free Porn :>' , it's a Belkin wireless system thats become infected, it's got no encryption and from what I saw, it's spewing out porn (of the hardcore and paedophilic variety) and a virus which attacks all computers in local meatspace every half hour. I've narrowed it down to 6 suspect houses, but I'll need to check later.
Second case in point: After the above, I went round to another neighbors house, he himself has little use or knowledge of a computer and his children are...well, thick when it comes to machines.
He only uses eBay, but his kids use Bebo, Limewire, and a few other programs which promise free games. On top of that, he's got an HP taskbar for printers (which makes no sense as he's using a Cannon printer), the virtual keyboard, MSN messneger and whatnot keep popping up at startup, he's using Internet Explorer, RealPlayer, Quicktime, Microsoft Office, no anti-virus (because he installed a demo of Norton 360, which leaves behind crap after it's been uninstalled preventing anything other then a Norton product being installed) and to add the cream to this shit-cake of a computer; he's running Vista.
Which means he has a computer quite capable of running Crysis just so he has special effects running. All the while, his beefy machine is struggling to keep up with it, often requiring five minutes to do an action after it's been started.
At this point, ladies and gentlemen, I'm banging my head agaisnt the wall, quite sure I'm in the 'geek' department of Guantanomo.
But, eventually I;
- Installed Firefox
- Installed VLC
- Put Frostwire in place of Limewire
- Got rid of BootyBox and other such rubbish
*phew*
I, like many others, wish that people would take care of their computers.
The truth is, the computers need to take care of their people.
Monday, 9 February 2009
Ve Live In Interesting Times...
Last year, one Ray K, a famous and perhaps optimistic futurist, made the prediction that AI would be here by 2029 (or at least, an AI with human-comparable ability)
Well, two events this month have forced me to think that it might just happen;
1. A robot designed to navigate in a similar way to the human brain.
As you can see, the robot moves in a more natural and faster way then eariler such machines, which often took quite a while to navigate and could not cope with changing conditions.
2.
a2i2, a company which has created an open-domain speech recog system (and oddly, attached the label of AGI to this system) is one example of current speech/conversational recognition systems. It can ask open-ended questions and otherwise make talking to a help-desk or a sales-droid much more natural, which leads to lower customer frustration and lower costs for the company in question.
(Reader's tip: Should you encounter one of the current generation of bots, those designed for recognizing touch tones, or with speech recognition, and you don't want to be hassled by it and wanna get to a human operator quickly; swear. Most systems detect it and will route you through to a human operator.
Well, two events this month have forced me to think that it might just happen;
1. A robot designed to navigate in a similar way to the human brain.
As you can see, the robot moves in a more natural and faster way then eariler such machines, which often took quite a while to navigate and could not cope with changing conditions.
2.
a2i2, a company which has created an open-domain speech recog system (and oddly, attached the label of AGI to this system) is one example of current speech/conversational recognition systems. It can ask open-ended questions and otherwise make talking to a help-desk or a sales-droid much more natural, which leads to lower customer frustration and lower costs for the company in question.
(Reader's tip: Should you encounter one of the current generation of bots, those designed for recognizing touch tones, or with speech recognition, and you don't want to be hassled by it and wanna get to a human operator quickly; swear. Most systems detect it and will route you through to a human operator.
Saturday, 7 February 2009
Game AI review: Left 4 Dead.
Valve has always been a game developer corporation close to my heart. From the early days of my childhood running scared through Half Life's laboratory complex to the more complex Half Life 2 Saga.
Now, of course, they've released another game called Left 4 Dead.
Left 4 Dead, as you might tell by the picture, is a horror, a survival horror. Now, I'm not a big fan of these kind of games, because normally I play to be entertained, not play to later require a change of underclothes.
Even worse, it's a cliché; you and three other people have to shoot down hordes of zombies in order to escape from the zombie infection.
But it isn't as bad as it sounds, Valve has developed a system they call the 'AI Director'. This Director controls where the zombies spawn, what kind of zombies they are and how many there are. It also controls what items spawn and where. Everything aside from the terrain and the survivors are controlled by the AI Director.
"A gasp, a scream...and all was silent, I crept up to the window and looked through it, a good thirty zombies where there; lying on the ground, against the wall, vomiting, stumbling...
I got into position around a half broken door, I brought my hunting rifle's scope up to my eye and looked around. I fired , one zombie dropped; her...it's... brains scattered a good two yards across the concrete, another came into view, eyeing up a potential meal; another shot, and it goes down as well.
A sickly cough, and my heart raced. A Smoker! I located it on the roof of the opposite building, staring right through me. It's tounge was hidelosuly long, and it spat it out. It wrapped around Zoey's neck and the Smoker pulled...dragging Zoey with it, kicking and screaming.
Francis ran after her, I focused on the Smoker and fired...but missed.
"Get it off me, get it off!!" Shouted Zoey, the long sickly tounge choking her.
I shot again, and hit it, we called it a smoker for a reason, it gave out a huge cloud of smoke then fell, it's tounge limp now that the head was no longer attached to it's body.
Too late, screams all around us, Zoey's cry had awoken the horde.
We assumed positions, I kept watching the street, Bill was watching my back. Zoey and Francis were back to back on the street below. A growl and Francis was down, hit by a hunter. I had already targeted the hunter and shot it, but the damage was done, a huge gaping hole in his adobmen.
The horde drew closer, running, screaming, eager for food. Zoey had her duel pistols out, shooting at this massive steamroller collection of Zombies, one grabbed her from behind, I took aim...but was covered in bile. I turned around and saw a Boomer, a huge monstroity of flesh whose liquidised and oddly voilitile innards attracted these beasts. Bill was down, his skull caved in. I pushed the boomer away and fired again. An explosion and I'm covered in even more bile.
I look down and see Zoey free of her captors, of course, they love boomer bile and wouldnt miss the oppotunity to eat boomer bile along with some rare meat.
I take Bill's assult rifle and fire into the horde, they drop but are as quickly replaced. I throw one ofmy pipe bombs and the horde can't resist a beeping stick. They gather around it, trying to pick it up and shoving others out of the way.
'BOOM'
I jump down to meet Zoey, she asks about Bill and I tell her.
"...Goodbye, old man" she says to Bill's body.
A Roar, and we both look to our left; a Tank, a massive bastard whose simple goal in life is to pound everything to little pieces. It lifts up a car and flings it, I push Zoey out the way and try to move myself...too late, the car's bonnet hit's me...
...I awake and watch as Zoey empties her last clip into the tank, no effect. The Tank runs up to her and punches her, sending her 20 feet away. She dosent get up.
Then a light catchs my eye, a medkit, a god-damn medkit! I crawl to it with my one good arm and start patching myself up. Getting ready to face that Tank."
-Louis
I got into position around a half broken door, I brought my hunting rifle's scope up to my eye and looked around. I fired , one zombie dropped; her...it's... brains scattered a good two yards across the concrete, another came into view, eyeing up a potential meal; another shot, and it goes down as well.
A sickly cough, and my heart raced. A Smoker! I located it on the roof of the opposite building, staring right through me. It's tounge was hidelosuly long, and it spat it out. It wrapped around Zoey's neck and the Smoker pulled...dragging Zoey with it, kicking and screaming.
Francis ran after her, I focused on the Smoker and fired...but missed.
"Get it off me, get it off!!" Shouted Zoey, the long sickly tounge choking her.
I shot again, and hit it, we called it a smoker for a reason, it gave out a huge cloud of smoke then fell, it's tounge limp now that the head was no longer attached to it's body.
Too late, screams all around us, Zoey's cry had awoken the horde.
We assumed positions, I kept watching the street, Bill was watching my back. Zoey and Francis were back to back on the street below. A growl and Francis was down, hit by a hunter. I had already targeted the hunter and shot it, but the damage was done, a huge gaping hole in his adobmen.
The horde drew closer, running, screaming, eager for food. Zoey had her duel pistols out, shooting at this massive steamroller collection of Zombies, one grabbed her from behind, I took aim...but was covered in bile. I turned around and saw a Boomer, a huge monstroity of flesh whose liquidised and oddly voilitile innards attracted these beasts. Bill was down, his skull caved in. I pushed the boomer away and fired again. An explosion and I'm covered in even more bile.
I look down and see Zoey free of her captors, of course, they love boomer bile and wouldnt miss the oppotunity to eat boomer bile along with some rare meat.
I take Bill's assult rifle and fire into the horde, they drop but are as quickly replaced. I throw one ofmy pipe bombs and the horde can't resist a beeping stick. They gather around it, trying to pick it up and shoving others out of the way.
'BOOM'
I jump down to meet Zoey, she asks about Bill and I tell her.
"...Goodbye, old man" she says to Bill's body.
A Roar, and we both look to our left; a Tank, a massive bastard whose simple goal in life is to pound everything to little pieces. It lifts up a car and flings it, I push Zoey out the way and try to move myself...too late, the car's bonnet hit's me...
...I awake and watch as Zoey empties her last clip into the tank, no effect. The Tank runs up to her and punches her, sending her 20 feet away. She dosent get up.
Then a light catchs my eye, a medkit, a god-damn medkit! I crawl to it with my one good arm and start patching myself up. Getting ready to face that Tank."
-Louis
The AI Director's goal is to make sure the player has a challenge, it will not be hard on the player if it detects the player isnt coping well, and will provide ammo and other supplies. However, should the player go fully into 'shoot everything' mode and push the game, the game will push back just as hard.
I only wish all games had this system...
I only wish all games had this system...
Thursday, 5 February 2009
Once...
...I loved snow, it is beautiful, it's quiet...now, however, it's going to be impossible, with my council running out of salt for the roads, I'm going to be effectively 'snowed in'.
Fun.
Fun.
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
Language 101
Stop, and think for a second...
What exactly 'is' language?
Imagine there is a fellow who can only say one word; no inflection, no meaning, just one word; Gotcha.
There's no meaning behind it, because there is no meaning behind words, there is only meaning behind a collection of words. I-Am-Going-To-The-Park makes sense, but the words individually have no sense unless related with the memory of a park, or you know what 'I' is.
Rather odd, really, we can only make sense using things that don't make sense. By understanding them more and more, specifically, in their context and use, do they make sense.
Consider when you learn a new word, like 'Articulate'. You would not understand if you didn't understand more basic, related terms like 'spoke' and nor would you use it unless you were regulariy exposed to objects and a society that uses such words.
What exactly 'is' language?
Imagine there is a fellow who can only say one word; no inflection, no meaning, just one word; Gotcha.
There's no meaning behind it, because there is no meaning behind words, there is only meaning behind a collection of words. I-Am-Going-To-The-Park makes sense, but the words individually have no sense unless related with the memory of a park, or you know what 'I' is.
Rather odd, really, we can only make sense using things that don't make sense. By understanding them more and more, specifically, in their context and use, do they make sense.
Consider when you learn a new word, like 'Articulate'. You would not understand if you didn't understand more basic, related terms like 'spoke' and nor would you use it unless you were regulariy exposed to objects and a society that uses such words.
Monday, 2 February 2009
The future of Operating Systems...
It's snowing...ok, this isnt such a big thing in other countries, but here, it is...it's about an inch of snow (I'm somewhat dreading going over the shops later for more ciggies...)
Anyway, I'm come here today to talk about the future, the future of the Operating System. Well, GNOME 3, basically.
I've put forth a few ideas of my own to make it a next-gen OS, particualy that of an 'Assistant'.
In the world of operating systems, there is a divide between the Command Line Interface, an unpretty, unintuivite but fast and effective way of operating the computer, and the Graphical User Interface, the exact opposite.
My ideas for this 'Assistant' in GNOME 3 serve as a bridge between the two, a natural language, intuitive way of using the command line whilst keeping it simple enough for anyone to use the speed and effectivness of a GUI.
Consider this example; if I want to, say, format my external hard-drive to FAT32, then either I must go through a dozen menus to do so (and with more options, the more cluttered it gets) or I can use the command line, which requires I know the commands to do the task. Both are unfriendly and daunting.
The Assistant would not be, I could tell the computer what I want it to do without knowing how to navigate through seemingly endless menus, or without having to know every command off by heart. I work on my terms, the assistant translates it into the computers terms.
Another benefit is that when a speech recognition system is created, the groundwork for me doing most of the computers tasks is already implemented.
Anyway, I'm come here today to talk about the future, the future of the Operating System. Well, GNOME 3, basically.
I've put forth a few ideas of my own to make it a next-gen OS, particualy that of an 'Assistant'.
In the world of operating systems, there is a divide between the Command Line Interface, an unpretty, unintuivite but fast and effective way of operating the computer, and the Graphical User Interface, the exact opposite.
My ideas for this 'Assistant' in GNOME 3 serve as a bridge between the two, a natural language, intuitive way of using the command line whilst keeping it simple enough for anyone to use the speed and effectivness of a GUI.
Consider this example; if I want to, say, format my external hard-drive to FAT32, then either I must go through a dozen menus to do so (and with more options, the more cluttered it gets) or I can use the command line, which requires I know the commands to do the task. Both are unfriendly and daunting.
The Assistant would not be, I could tell the computer what I want it to do without knowing how to navigate through seemingly endless menus, or without having to know every command off by heart. I work on my terms, the assistant translates it into the computers terms.
Another benefit is that when a speech recognition system is created, the groundwork for me doing most of the computers tasks is already implemented.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
