ibisum

The most controversial part of this for me is this:

    [NZ/CL/PE/VN/BN/MY/SG/CA4/MX5 propose; US/JP oppose: The objectives of this Chapter are:

Who are these parties and why are they negotiating this in secret, away from the public eye. If it is just mundane boilerplate (not finished reading yet) then I have to say that the most surprising thing of all is that we are being governed by copy/paste. I don't think that is the case here.

Indeed, that is what has been being done now, by humans, for tens of thousands of years.

I think we don't acknowledge just how much of the Human Hive Mind we already have. I mean, there are individual humans: and then there is humanity. In between, many, many hives and collectives and corporations and aggregates, and so on.

This, I believe, points to a 'higher, greater good' which is the species itself. So to answer your question, no: its not strange at all to be perpetuating human DNA in spite of ownership. Its the species which owns you, not the other way around. None of us exist without others.

There were a couple of SGI Indy laptop prototypes in the works too, but I guess they didn't go anywhere. But .. just imagine this, all you althist'ers: what if SGI had been the one to release the tiBook, instead of Apple, and for a good price? Would we all be going into SGI stores and drooling these days? I bet that could've happened .. the spirit was there at SGI, even if the management wasn't. (It should also be noted that a lot of that spirit went elsewhere when SGI exploded: Transmeta, Nvidia, AMD, etc. Some good SGI talent even went to Apple! So .. there is a bit of SGI DNA all over the place these days, in fact ..)

I probably ratched up 100 hours or more on F-117 Steal Bomber, for DOS, back in the day. There is no reason not to play it even now, still today: consider the pixelation more of a consequence of "HUD"/"IFR" and be done with it. Fact is, those old games still run, and still work for simulating the death cult and its machines ..

Upon reading of RWR and its delights, at least one part of me, the techno-dweeb, goes "weeeh!" ..

Another part, more of a hippy tree-hugger, goes "wish we were using this to figure out where to drop the water/medicine/books instead of BOOMB devices" ..

I mean, seriously. Tell us where to drop the books, and BOOM there it is: how it should be.

It's a little bit of the spirit of The Well, and some USENET/BBS to boot. I think this is really missing from the modern web, so I cheer you on! It is a toast-worthy activity, your little blip on the horizon ..

>>>Mercedes, BMW, Cadillac, Volkswagen, Ford, etc. already have that.

So? None of these manufacturers have a carbon-friendly drive train. The fact that Tesla added a software feature "late in the game" is no 'bonus' to the already-contenders. Actually, lets see Mercedes' obstacle-avoidance compete with the SpaceX/Tesla crowd. I'm willing to suffer the down-votes until such a point is reached that we all, conscientiously, acknowledge the docking maneuvers allowed by a SpaceX/Tesla co-operation. In the meantime I'd like to point out to you: software features as an "also-ran" is not really a dilemma.

I'm still yet to find an actual use for the thing, regardless of constraints/limitations. The fact is, until we have a use of the hardware which allows average-person to gain some advantage, we have little progress.

Can I check for Ebola with the thing?

.. or how about a Spectruino:

    http://myspectral.com/

My big question is - what can these be used for? What are they actually useful for? I guess .. gardening? Medicine?

As long as you're white and healthy.

The Popcorn sound was as ubiquitous in 70's synth music as the DX Bass sound was in 80's music, as the Pizzo sound was in the 90's, and so on .. each generation has their favourite factory preset. ;)

Daft Punk are the new kids on the block. Why should they be mentioned in this article, in particular? They use factory presets (canned sounds) and derivative riffs - in fact, its difficult to see, as a seasoned synthesist, just why anyone would care what Daft Punk have done with synthesizers of any merit. Anyone can use factory presets to sell millions of albums - and many, many have. Why mention Daft Punk in particular?

On the flip side, you have DSP-based manufacturers of synthesizers who are selling their products for >$2.5k, whereas the true cost is really more like $300. The synthesizer world is just as prone to the economies of luxury and privilege as any other consumer, non-essential device.

(Disclaimer: worked in the synth business for decades.. its a truly heinous world if you peek beneath the covers for too long. Smoke, mirrors, deceit .. its all there, being applied, in the never-endless pursuit to 'market to the cool and gullible..')