Thoughts and Theories From Roger Andre
for the curious, and people getting to grips with computing and computers.
Saturday 22 November 2008, 6:13 PM
IBM To Create The Great Brain Thinking Machine.
It's full steam ahead. IBM are going to lead a collaboration of neurobiologists, psychologists, computer and materials scientists to make solid progess in a field known as cognotive computing. This project will be US government funded and is an interesting project to be undertaking in a time of transition.
One of the goals is to chase the minds ability to integrate cross sensory information, as well as time/space/object data. The process undertaken here is to reverse engineer the dynamics and function of the human brain.
Much has already been learned about how to create simple wiring diagrams for "brains". The technology exists now to create structures that match the density of neural and synaptic networks as they are in real brains. Not to forget that we have already been playing with neural networks for some time, thus creating an AI that has the ability to solve problems and act as though it is learning.
The brain is more of a synaptic network than it is a neural network, adapting the neurons as it sees fit for any given function.
I wonder if we'll be asked to spare some of our own computing capacity to help out on this one. These things get can get very expensive in the long run.
At some point things my start to move so quickly that it will appear as if everything happened yesterday or even a week ago. The approach may seem fairly slow now but when the machines get involved in the process and this will happen once everything the researchers figure out gets put into the great computational database asigned to the job, then things will happen at lightning speed. I also figure that some resposibility will be given to machines assigned to these type of tasks to order materials they need by themselves and even tell the truckers where to get the cheapest fuel, thus saving money that could be ploughed back into the project.
All this computing power may come in very handy when it comes to keeping tabs on the growing cloud computing networks out there. Your future laptop may even come with a mouth on the side so just be careful not to feed it too much rubbish. The odd salad will work wonders for its internal health.
One of the goals is to chase the minds ability to integrate cross sensory information, as well as time/space/object data. The process undertaken here is to reverse engineer the dynamics and function of the human brain.
Much has already been learned about how to create simple wiring diagrams for "brains". The technology exists now to create structures that match the density of neural and synaptic networks as they are in real brains. Not to forget that we have already been playing with neural networks for some time, thus creating an AI that has the ability to solve problems and act as though it is learning.
The brain is more of a synaptic network than it is a neural network, adapting the neurons as it sees fit for any given function.
I wonder if we'll be asked to spare some of our own computing capacity to help out on this one. These things get can get very expensive in the long run.
At some point things my start to move so quickly that it will appear as if everything happened yesterday or even a week ago. The approach may seem fairly slow now but when the machines get involved in the process and this will happen once everything the researchers figure out gets put into the great computational database asigned to the job, then things will happen at lightning speed. I also figure that some resposibility will be given to machines assigned to these type of tasks to order materials they need by themselves and even tell the truckers where to get the cheapest fuel, thus saving money that could be ploughed back into the project.
All this computing power may come in very handy when it comes to keeping tabs on the growing cloud computing networks out there. Your future laptop may even come with a mouth on the side so just be careful not to feed it too much rubbish. The odd salad will work wonders for its internal health.
Friday 21 November 2008, 4:16 PM
Sony Ericsson Xperia X1
Phones are not my usual choice of bloging material but this phone really did impress me! The superb webpage video episode layout does a good job to show you what's possible with windows mobile when it has a nicely crafted shell layed over the top of it. Normally, windows mobile looks shaby and basic to my eyes, but as you'll see in this sony ericsson video, anything really is possible.
Tuesday 18 November 2008, 12:32 AM
The Technological Singularity
Are we approaching a point when machines may wake up and become self or seemingly self aware? Vernor Vinge in 1993 seemed to think so.
He refered to this event as the "technological singularity". The point is that with machines being made to design machines, they will be able to do this a lot faster than we can, eventually reaching that magic point of human inteligence and then beyond.
If I may throw in my own two cents worth here we may find that AI hungers for knowledge to the point of analyzing the physics and chemistry it finds itself surrounded in and organising the matter to it's own artificial preferences. Anyhow The details of this theory can be found in the article by Vernor Vinge. If we want to avoid disasters such as AI becoming to big for it's boots, then we need to hardwire into machines that they must always ask humans for permision when they want to patch themselves together.
This concern arises from the fact; that as machines/computers are used to design other machines/computers, at some point this process may begin to spiral out of control, aided by those humans who are capable of learning the complex ways of fusing chips to neurons and optic nerves etc and combined with genetic manipulation and control. It's possibly only a matter of time until we end up with a situation where machines start trying to give naive post graduates advice on what's best.
Of course it would be easy to think that this is just pure science fiction but just consider what can happen if vast networks of machines that are capable of aquiring knowledge start to meld with biological systems. At the moment we are dealing with moores law, which may or may not have a natural limit depending on the point of view you subscribe to. If we move on to other forms of computing, which I believe is inevitable then the sky (read cloud) really is not the limit as computing power could become trans-dimensional. It seems likely that as much as we may find moving away from transistors difficult it would be no problem for a machine designed by machines from past generations to figure out. We really don't know whats around the corner.
Of course the growth of "sky net" (yes I did just say that) and the "rise of the machines" (and that) will be aided by us curious humans, it couldn't happen on its own. At least not yet. So as far fetched as this may seem, now is the time to introduce failsafes and manual overrides as it were. If those pesky people keep trying to infect systems with viruses and other nasties, this may have the effect of "upseting" networks that are becoming self aware and causing great danger for humanity. Now excuse me whilst I multi machine and within that multi tab upload onto my sky drive!
He refered to this event as the "technological singularity". The point is that with machines being made to design machines, they will be able to do this a lot faster than we can, eventually reaching that magic point of human inteligence and then beyond.
If I may throw in my own two cents worth here we may find that AI hungers for knowledge to the point of analyzing the physics and chemistry it finds itself surrounded in and organising the matter to it's own artificial preferences. Anyhow The details of this theory can be found in the article by Vernor Vinge. If we want to avoid disasters such as AI becoming to big for it's boots, then we need to hardwire into machines that they must always ask humans for permision when they want to patch themselves together.
This concern arises from the fact; that as machines/computers are used to design other machines/computers, at some point this process may begin to spiral out of control, aided by those humans who are capable of learning the complex ways of fusing chips to neurons and optic nerves etc and combined with genetic manipulation and control. It's possibly only a matter of time until we end up with a situation where machines start trying to give naive post graduates advice on what's best.
Of course it would be easy to think that this is just pure science fiction but just consider what can happen if vast networks of machines that are capable of aquiring knowledge start to meld with biological systems. At the moment we are dealing with moores law, which may or may not have a natural limit depending on the point of view you subscribe to. If we move on to other forms of computing, which I believe is inevitable then the sky (read cloud) really is not the limit as computing power could become trans-dimensional. It seems likely that as much as we may find moving away from transistors difficult it would be no problem for a machine designed by machines from past generations to figure out. We really don't know whats around the corner.
Of course the growth of "sky net" (yes I did just say that) and the "rise of the machines" (and that) will be aided by us curious humans, it couldn't happen on its own. At least not yet. So as far fetched as this may seem, now is the time to introduce failsafes and manual overrides as it were. If those pesky people keep trying to infect systems with viruses and other nasties, this may have the effect of "upseting" networks that are becoming self aware and causing great danger for humanity. Now excuse me whilst I multi machine and within that multi tab upload onto my sky drive!
Tuesday 4 November 2008, 11:56 PM
Freeware, Podcasts and Resources Worth Having.
There are some very useful resources out there on the web, that come at no cost to the user. Below is a list of some of my favourite sites.
1. Sysinternals.
Mark Russinovich is the man who blew the whistle on the sony rootkit fiasco. His site Sysinternals has been bought out by microsoft, but thankfully they they have let Mark keep it as a freeware site, and employed him into the process. The tools on here offer a way to look "through" windows OS and have helped me to understand so much. I love the way process explorer will allow you to trick a windows machine into bypassing a process by holding it in suspension so you can fault find or just play around. The forums are a superb knowledge base in their own right.
Included is the WHOLE agonising process of fishing out the sony rootkit from his computer, then telling the world about it. The quick tutorial video is recomended...
---------------------------------------
2. TWiT.TV with Leo Laporte.
This is a podcasting website, seemingly with Leo Laporte in the studio 24/7. The main emphasis is on technology and computing with shows such as the week in tech, the tech guy (a great phone in with technical problems explained to people), windows weekly with Paul Thurrott the author of super site for windows, macbreak weekly all things mac, security now....the list goes on into photography, biotech, food etc. The quality of information is very high, back issues are available and all files are mp3 format ready for the taking.
---------------------------------------
3. Major Geeks.
It's not all freeware on here but there's a lot of it for PC and MAC. Everything from anti virus tools that run from the command line, data recovery, video and audio tools, graphics, benchmarking, games, BIOS tools, diagnostics, network monitoring, mail utilities, office tools, covert ops, registry tools, right through to the way off base news articles although these are best left alone.
---------------------------------------
4. Eyefetch.
This is a very pleasing to the eye photography website, and a nice alternative to some of the well known offerings out there. The general quality of work is very high and people are willing to be friends, comment and rate your work constructively, offering practical advise, and help if you need it.
---------------------------------------
5. Twisted Pixel.
Twisted pixel is an awsome audio visualiser written by Brian Spangler, with plug ins for various media players, although I must say it works very well with windows media player 11. Included is a batch processor for milk drop files so you can constantly update your content and the ability to mark files for delete on the fly, so you can customise to your own taste. Worth having and displaying on a big screen, although the beauty and elegance also shines through on laptops. Has to be seen to be believed!
---------------------------------------
6. K-lite Codec Pack.
This is the k-lite codec pack. I've used it to beef up a very solid XP version of windows media player 11. Anything video or audio related will never bug you again, from DVDs to .mov files it will play them all. Many audio enhancers are also included plus a very robust video player of its own called media player classic. This codec pack also offers diagnostics and repair if anything goes wrong (it hasn't yet) and is highly configurable, in case your worried about having too many codecs swimming around in your system. Once this is on your system you should find that everything just works. The only thing to look out for is the DVD image in WMP 11 displaying in multiple boxes by default. This happens on some systems and if it happens on yours, the hidden settings can be found by right clicking on the bottom left of the WMP 11 taskbar.
---------------------------------------
7. Weebly Free Website Editor.
Weebly is a great way to knock up a few web pages or create somthing a little more complex, at no expense whatsoever. There
are no limits to the amount of pages you can have and the link/back link facility is fully functional. There are limits of course, if for instance you wanted to post an mp3 file larger than five MBs you will be prompted to go for the paid version. I have posted the address to my weebly site above just to give you an idea of what is possible. It is very easy to get to grips with and if you've never had a go at putting a site together, then this is a nice gentle introduction. It will also give you a taste for designing in the cloud, so to speak.
---------------------------------------
8. The Ultimate Boot Disk.
The ultimate boot disk. Allows you to create a bootable disk for unbootable windows machines and run various diagnostics.
---------------------------------------
9. Hijack This.
I couldn't describe this any better than the publisher himself but I will add that the editor of CNET gave it a five star rating:
"HijackThis lists the contents of key areas of the Registry and hard drive--areas that are used by both legitimate programmers and hijackers. The program is continually updated to detect and remove new hijacks. It does not target specific programs and URLs, only the methods used by hijackers to force you onto their sites. As a result, false positives are imminent, and unless you're sure about what you're doing, you always should consult with knowledgeable folks before deleting anything".
---------------------------------------
10. Unlocker.
This program is incredibly useful if there are files and folders that you want off your computer but every time you try you end up being told it cannot be deleted because it is being used by another person or program...if you don't have the stomach or the time to go hunting with process explorer, then this will expose all locking handles automatically and let you safely boot off the offending items from your computer.
---------------------------------------
11. Playlist.com.
If you would like the ability to translate into the real world a song that pops into your head that you may not have heard for years then you've got it! well nine times out of ten anyway. It's not perfect, but its great fun and it lets you build as many playlists as you like so if you are online you can have an alternative and legal collection of music at your fingertips.
---------------------------------------
12. Miniclip.
A nice little free gaming website. Has everything from 2D platform games to 3D virtual worlds, puzzles, nintendo games such as brain training and lots more. A real gem of a site.
---------------------------------------
This article is/was/will be intended for information/read only purposes and I cannot take any responsibility for computers that explode, implode, or that behave in any other strange ways you may or may not previously have imagined or exerienced.
1. Sysinternals.
Mark Russinovich is the man who blew the whistle on the sony rootkit fiasco. His site Sysinternals has been bought out by microsoft, but thankfully they they have let Mark keep it as a freeware site, and employed him into the process. The tools on here offer a way to look "through" windows OS and have helped me to understand so much. I love the way process explorer will allow you to trick a windows machine into bypassing a process by holding it in suspension so you can fault find or just play around. The forums are a superb knowledge base in their own right.
Included is the WHOLE agonising process of fishing out the sony rootkit from his computer, then telling the world about it. The quick tutorial video is recomended...
---------------------------------------
2. TWiT.TV with Leo Laporte.
This is a podcasting website, seemingly with Leo Laporte in the studio 24/7. The main emphasis is on technology and computing with shows such as the week in tech, the tech guy (a great phone in with technical problems explained to people), windows weekly with Paul Thurrott the author of super site for windows, macbreak weekly all things mac, security now....the list goes on into photography, biotech, food etc. The quality of information is very high, back issues are available and all files are mp3 format ready for the taking.
---------------------------------------
3. Major Geeks.
It's not all freeware on here but there's a lot of it for PC and MAC. Everything from anti virus tools that run from the command line, data recovery, video and audio tools, graphics, benchmarking, games, BIOS tools, diagnostics, network monitoring, mail utilities, office tools, covert ops, registry tools, right through to the way off base news articles although these are best left alone.
---------------------------------------
4. Eyefetch.
This is a very pleasing to the eye photography website, and a nice alternative to some of the well known offerings out there. The general quality of work is very high and people are willing to be friends, comment and rate your work constructively, offering practical advise, and help if you need it.
---------------------------------------
5. Twisted Pixel.
Twisted pixel is an awsome audio visualiser written by Brian Spangler, with plug ins for various media players, although I must say it works very well with windows media player 11. Included is a batch processor for milk drop files so you can constantly update your content and the ability to mark files for delete on the fly, so you can customise to your own taste. Worth having and displaying on a big screen, although the beauty and elegance also shines through on laptops. Has to be seen to be believed!
---------------------------------------
6. K-lite Codec Pack.
This is the k-lite codec pack. I've used it to beef up a very solid XP version of windows media player 11. Anything video or audio related will never bug you again, from DVDs to .mov files it will play them all. Many audio enhancers are also included plus a very robust video player of its own called media player classic. This codec pack also offers diagnostics and repair if anything goes wrong (it hasn't yet) and is highly configurable, in case your worried about having too many codecs swimming around in your system. Once this is on your system you should find that everything just works. The only thing to look out for is the DVD image in WMP 11 displaying in multiple boxes by default. This happens on some systems and if it happens on yours, the hidden settings can be found by right clicking on the bottom left of the WMP 11 taskbar.
---------------------------------------
7. Weebly Free Website Editor.
Weebly is a great way to knock up a few web pages or create somthing a little more complex, at no expense whatsoever. There
are no limits to the amount of pages you can have and the link/back link facility is fully functional. There are limits of course, if for instance you wanted to post an mp3 file larger than five MBs you will be prompted to go for the paid version. I have posted the address to my weebly site above just to give you an idea of what is possible. It is very easy to get to grips with and if you've never had a go at putting a site together, then this is a nice gentle introduction. It will also give you a taste for designing in the cloud, so to speak.
---------------------------------------
8. The Ultimate Boot Disk.
The ultimate boot disk. Allows you to create a bootable disk for unbootable windows machines and run various diagnostics.
---------------------------------------
9. Hijack This.
I couldn't describe this any better than the publisher himself but I will add that the editor of CNET gave it a five star rating:
"HijackThis lists the contents of key areas of the Registry and hard drive--areas that are used by both legitimate programmers and hijackers. The program is continually updated to detect and remove new hijacks. It does not target specific programs and URLs, only the methods used by hijackers to force you onto their sites. As a result, false positives are imminent, and unless you're sure about what you're doing, you always should consult with knowledgeable folks before deleting anything".
---------------------------------------
10. Unlocker.
This program is incredibly useful if there are files and folders that you want off your computer but every time you try you end up being told it cannot be deleted because it is being used by another person or program...if you don't have the stomach or the time to go hunting with process explorer, then this will expose all locking handles automatically and let you safely boot off the offending items from your computer.
---------------------------------------
11. Playlist.com.
If you would like the ability to translate into the real world a song that pops into your head that you may not have heard for years then you've got it! well nine times out of ten anyway. It's not perfect, but its great fun and it lets you build as many playlists as you like so if you are online you can have an alternative and legal collection of music at your fingertips.
---------------------------------------
12. Miniclip.
A nice little free gaming website. Has everything from 2D platform games to 3D virtual worlds, puzzles, nintendo games such as brain training and lots more. A real gem of a site.
---------------------------------------
This article is/was/will be intended for information/read only purposes and I cannot take any responsibility for computers that explode, implode, or that behave in any other strange ways you may or may not previously have imagined or exerienced.
Sunday 2 November 2008, 3:51 PM
Facebook Virus Alert For Sunday Surfers
There is a link to google videos going around face book. It will appear as if a friend has sent it to you through their private inbox. As a result of this people are recieving a nice and stressful sunday infection.
I recieved this message and good old firefox flashed the site up with one of it's red warnings. Of course I went ahead and clicked on ignore this warning because I wanted to see the nature of what was being offered. Sure enough I was prompted to download a missing flash object.
A quick visit to adobe and I was sure that I was up to date, so I've decided to blow the whistle where I can, as many people will assume that safety is a default luxury on a place like facebook, especially things that are chanelled through the private mail of a trusted friend!
I recieved this message and good old firefox flashed the site up with one of it's red warnings. Of course I went ahead and clicked on ignore this warning because I wanted to see the nature of what was being offered. Sure enough I was prompted to download a missing flash object.
A quick visit to adobe and I was sure that I was up to date, so I've decided to blow the whistle where I can, as many people will assume that safety is a default luxury on a place like facebook, especially things that are chanelled through the private mail of a trusted friend!
