robot dogs learn linguistic tricks
28 06 06 - 19:12. Category: default
It is truly impressive that researchers apparently have demonstrated that a robot can be programmed with the ability to develop its own language with which to describe its environment and interact with other robots. Researchers from disciplines as diverse as robotics, linguistics and biology led by the
Institute of Cognitive Science and Technology in Italy joined with researchers at Sony’s Computer Science Laboratory in France to add a new level of intelligence to the AIBO dog. (AIBO was Sony's first somewhat mass-produced consumer robot).
"Whereas we humans use the word ‘ball’ to refer to a ball, the AIBO dogs start from scratch to develop common agreement on a word to use to refer the ball. They also develop the language structures to express, for instance, that the ball is rolling to the left. The researchers achieved this through instilling their robots with a sense of ‘curiosity.’"
The researchers confidently proclaim that they have: "managed to ground AI in reality, in the real world, solving one of the crucial problems to creating truly intelligent and cooperative systems." If so, this is very interesting news indeed.
Is Microsoft Broken?
23 06 06 - 11:46. Category: default
A Microsoft insider
opines whether Microsoft's Windows Operating Software development environment is "essentially uncontrollable by nature? Or has Microsoft been beset by one too many broken windows?"
Windows Vista, "the largest concerted software project in human history,": "
I managed developer teams in Windows for five years, and have only begun to reflect on the experience...why Vista is plagued by delays[?]...Windows code is too complicated...Deep in the bowels of Windows, there remains the whiff of a bygone culture of belittlement and aggression. Windows can be a scary place to tell the truth...."
This is a thoughtful
blog with lots of commentary.
video and net neutrality
12 06 06 - 08:51. Category: default
Last week's
vloggercon stirred widespread interest in assessing whether mainstream media is facing an implacably growing rivalry from Internet video. There isn't general agreement on the answer, but video delivery tools like podcasting and webcasting are certainly growing phenomenon.
Vlogging, podcasting, and various forms of web streaming video allow anyone to create content or tell a story via video, host the content on a server, and deliver the video directly to end users without a license from a studio or a contract with a major publishing house. With low barriers of entry, the Internet's ability to deliver video seems threatening to mainstream media and telecommunications providers who prefer monopoly power and the sure-thing of the status quo over innovation. Mainstream media would like to slow down the development of Internet video by making access to Internet video content more costly than access to other Interent services like email or web blogging. This violates a principle often called net neutrality. These mainstream companies argue that net neutrality is bad public policy. Indeed, the U.S. House of Representatives definitively rejected the concept of net neutrality last week.
In its most basic formulation, the concept of network
neutrality requires that all Internet sites be treated equally in access, delivery, and pricing. Although there may be plausible exceptions, I doubt that it is wise to abandon the principle of net neutrality: innovation and entrepreneurship surely would be adversely affected. Even for end-users, the Internet access would likely become more costly cutting off affordability of certain services from many users.
U.S. is seeking comments on ICANN
02 06 06 - 20:25. Category: default
If you have something thoughtful and important to say about ICANN, now may be the best time to say it. The United States Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is seeking comments on the continuation of the transition of the technical coordination and management of the Internet domain name and addressing system (Internet DNS) to the private sector (i.e., the use of ICANN or other systems of Internet governance).
Comments are due on or before July 7, 2006.All comments will be posted to NTIA's website at
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/dnstransition.html.
Seeking new article submissions - AIPLA
02 06 06 - 20:11. Category: default
The
American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) Quarterly Journal is seeking new article submissions from practitioners and legal scholars for publication in upcoming volumes of the journal. AIPLA Quarterly Journal is supported by the law school where I earned my Juris Doctor, George Washington University.
To submit a manuscript for publication consideration, send an electronic copy by email to submissions@aipla.org.
For more details on submission guidelines please go to AIPLA's website at:
http://www.aipla.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Publications/Quarterly_Journal1/Default800.htm
AIPLA is one of the largest private bars of intellectual property attorneys in the world, with over 9,000 members in the United States. The AIPLA Quarterly Journal is published four times a year through the efforts of the staff of student editors, the AIPLA board, and the Editor-in-Chief,
Professor Joan Schaffner.
The AIPLA Q.J. is designed to promote an exchange of intellectual insight and debate on issues of intellectual property law, and the journal participants strive to make it the premier I.P. journal for I.P. practitioners.