77460
submission
dthomas731 writes:
Computerworld has a brief article on some of DARPA's current projects. From the article:
Later in the program, Holland says, PAL will be able to "automatically watch a conversation between two people and, using natural-language processing, figure out what are the tasks they agreed upon."
At that point, perhaps DARPA's PAL could be renamed HAL, for Hearing Assistant That Learns. The original HAL, in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, tells the astronauts how it knows they're plotting to disconnect it: "Dave, although you took thorough precautions in the pod against my hearing you, I could see your lips move."
6106
submission
dthomas731 writes:
After reading Ed Foster's blog about how the Embroidery Software Protection Coalition (ESPC) is suing grandmothers over using pirated digitized designs, I thought you might want to call your own grandmothers and tell them they are going to be needing a lawyer.
And the ESPC is very serious . On the ESPC faq page they scare these Grandmothers by comparing software theft to brain surgery.
"If a brain surgeon opens your cranium and takes a peek inside your brain, does he see ideas and intelligence? Just because he only sees a brain, can he determine the content? And if he cannot measure any content, does that mean you are mindless? No."
And telling them even if they didn't know the software was pirated that "Unfortunately, when it comes to copyright violations, ignorance is no defense."
