stijnm

Am I the only one thinking this is all rather convenient?

As any good PR team should do (and I know Apple's are excellent), after the big backlash they experienced over the GoogleVoice debacle, they are now slowly but surely turning it around.

OK, I am cynical, but using the old "you didn't understand my inflection" to win an argument is something I used against my sister - when I was 10.

And, pray tell, what is the problem you are trying to solve?

I was hoping this was going to be a real breakdown and analysis of why things turned around for this blogger. For example, topics he wrote about then which he doesn't anymore or how his user base has changed compared to then.

Unfortunately, it lacks any real content and depth - it may as well have been written for Reader's Digest.

To be able to pack so much meaning into so few words is an excellent skill to have.

I had another peruse of the list and this one jumped out at me: Bellum se ipsum alet ("War will nourish on itself")

Recent world events have certainly shown this to be true.

I enjoyed going through this list - so I thought you might too!

Here are a few to wet your taste buds:

- a thought-provoking one: Deorum iniuriae Diis curae. ("Offences to the gods are the concern of the gods." - Perhaps very apt in these times of religious tension.)

- a kind of meta-proverb: Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur. ("Anything said in Latin sounds profound." )

- a weird one: Temeas simium meum. ("Hold my monkey!" - Eh?)

There are plenty of others, go and discover.

Your example implicitly means that you do agree someone needs to be made liable for the child through 'obligatory supervision' - because if you don't do that, you will be accountable.

You say 'as long as parents do not violate'. Indeed, as long as you do what is required to ensure nothing goes wrong ("bonus pater familias"), but an accident still happens, then society/German Law accepts no one is liable.

Your argument seems to point more to: How do you define someone as liable and how do you enforce it?

I don't want to forego a stimulating intelectual discourse, but isn't it obvious?

Replace 'autonomous machine' with 'child' and it is clear a parent is responsible. For autonomous machines these are the owners. Machines may be autonomous, but if a real person is liable, then I am sure there will be plenty of checks and tests done to prevent any disasters.

In fact, the results of the accounting scandals not so long ago may be a good template. Investors were fully dependent on this autonomous, faceless, financial machine to churn out profits. That blew up in their face and they had no-one to blame. One result was the enactment of Sarbanes-Oxley which set, amongst other things, criminal penalties on individuals.

That is good motivation: accountability.

Creative way to illustrate the song.

OK, it is just a bit of fun and maybe not very HN-like, but I can imagine it did take quite a bit of thought to make and it is a powerful representation.

If only every business/technical illustration I saw at work was as clear and concise as this was...

Some open thoughts:

1. Doesn't every phone these days have a voice trigger to call someone? My old Nokia has and it works pretty well.

2. It seems to require some touching to use. Tap to run app. Tap to start recording. Tap after a status update. Tap tap tap... I thought this was voice-controlled?

3. Searching the internet using your voice doesn't seem that practical. At least by looking at how I use search - using wildcards and such. So it may be a bit restrictive.

4. The voice layer on top of Google and Yahoo will, of course, require a hotspot. Not always available and it may be expensive.

5. I may see this being useful for disabled people.

6. How accurate is voice recognition and pickup really?

7. Is there no chance that Google Voice can become a competitor in the future? They have all the voice recognition expertise - just look at voicemail to text feature. Potential competition from Google must be considered.

8. It doesn't appear to be especially speedy.

In conclusion, it is not that appealing to me but seeing as it is free to try basic features, I may try it out anyway.