posted
Amazing, and just as the U.S. military starts talking about equiping soldiers with smart phones. We have jetpacks, a doorway through the language barrier and the greatest tool of information is used largely to look at cats... all we need is flying cars and we really are in the future.
Posts: 2302 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
I am sick of people asking for the flying cars. We could have flying cars if we wanted. The reason we do not is BECAUSE THEY ARE A BAD IDEA. People suck at driving in 2D. They would not become less sucky in 3D.
I AM waiting on those automated highways in Minority Report and I, Robot, but we can't have those because people freak out about the loss of control and think they are better at driving than machines.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
I don't own a cellphone ._. I believe they are evil, most definetly in the hands of kids my age and younger! ----------------- Raymond you sir speak the truth!
Begins talking in a relatively deep and attractive voice, somewhat similar to Morgan Freeman's. "In a world where you can fall asleep at the wheel, and not cause a six car pile-up, there will be fear! 'The machines, there out of control, they are driving too perfectly, the insurrance companies are going out of buissiness' The world is fueled by chaos, or is that electricity generated by the power of the wind!? We SHAN'T have self driving cars!"
So guy's how did I do ?
Posts: 461 | Registered: Nov 2010
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What I'd kinda like is from a young adult book series, where instead of roads, we have basically those moving pathways from the Jetsons, but with multiple stages that get increasingly fast, so you can walk from path to path without suddenly going crazy-faster and falling over, but by the time you reach the "fast lane" you're going like 30 MPH.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
Why not just learn all these languages anyways... I have a great friend who seems to be interested in learning all the languages he can..
He knows...Portugese, English, Spanish, French, Norwegian,Swedish,Japanese... and he's still trying to learn more... though from what I know he's only mastered Portugese English and Spanish, considering how well he does with the other languages all he needs is more vocabulary..
Why can't we all do this or why can't we all speak the same language, then we don't need translators ._.
Heck even my exgirlfriend speaks a few languages... English, Swedish, Kurdish,(and oen more middle eastern one), and 'was' taking classes for chinese...
Posts: 461 | Registered: Nov 2010
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Yes, I know I have poor writing/typing skills. No need to poke the bear, just saying that won't make me type any better than I do now.
I speak English, and I took a year and a half on Spanish, which for the most part is almost entirely forgotten. No comprendo de Espanol. (I'm not busting out special characters for anyone!)
Posts: 461 | Registered: Nov 2010
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posted
I'm cross-posting something I wrote elsewhere:
It's a slick app, but it doesn't do anything especially difficult (beyond fitting together a variety of functionality very nicely). OCR of clearly printed text on signs is easy, and then it's just substituting dictionary words and word patterns, looks like, not actually doing any translation.
Modifying the image so the text is replaced "in place" is also a nifty trick, but again not too hard (with well known algorithms), given a camera that's trying to stay fixed in perspective and distance towards a flat surface with edges. Add in edge detection (easy), geometric transformations (easy with the edges), and some smarts about the text color and height, and you have text replacement.
Still, a very slick and nifty piece of work from someone who had a great idea for fitting all the pieces together. They'll make a nice piece of change.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Raymond Arnold: What I'd kinda like is from a young adult book series, where instead of roads, we have basically those moving pathways from the Jetsons, but with multiple stages that get increasingly fast, so you can walk from path to path without suddenly going crazy-faster and falling over, but by the time you reach the "fast lane" you're going like 30 MPH.
It's called "The Roads Must Roll", and Robert Heinlein wrote it in 1940. Of course, his fast lane was going over 100 mph.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Raymond Arnold: What I'd kinda like is from a young adult book series, where instead of roads, we have basically those moving pathways from the Jetsons, but with multiple stages that get increasingly fast, so you can walk from path to path without suddenly going crazy-faster and falling over, but by the time you reach the "fast lane" you're going like 30 MPH.
I'd be cool with little programable pods that pull up to your front door, you step in and enter your destination, and it zips you along a monorail track towards your destination at super high speeds. Think high speed mag-rail but for personal vehicles. They would be public use, and they would elimate the need for streets altogether. We could convert them all into parks.
Amazing app though, I'm downloading it first chance I get. Thanks for the link. It should come in handy in June. I'm going to surprise my wife with a cruise for our 5 year anniversary. Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Raymond Arnold: What I'd kinda like is from a young adult book series, where instead of roads, we have basically those moving pathways from the Jetsons, but with multiple stages that get increasingly fast, so you can walk from path to path without suddenly going crazy-faster and falling over, but by the time you reach the "fast lane" you're going like 30 MPH.
It's called "The Roads Must Roll", and Robert Heinlein wrote it in 1940. Of course, his fast lane was going over 100 mph.
Asimov also does it in 'Caves of Steel'.
Posts: 1080 | Registered: Apr 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Raymond Arnold: I am sick of people asking for the flying cars. We could have flying cars if we wanted. The reason we do not is BECAUSE THEY ARE A BAD IDEA. People suck at driving in 2D. They would not become less sucky in 3D.
I AM waiting on those automated highways in Minority Report and I, Robot, but we can't have those because people freak out about the loss of control and think they are better at driving than machines.
I dont really care wether or not anyone else has a flying car, I want one nonetheless. Besides, survival of the fittest would easily apply to the airways. Just imagine... we would run out of drunk drivers quickly.
Posts: 2302 | Registered: Aug 2008
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quote:Besides, survival of the fittest would easily apply to the airways. Just imagine... we would run out of drunk drivers quickly
We'd also lose approximately one probably-not-drunk-driver to ever drunkard. Also, we already do this.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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quote:Originally posted by AchillesHeel: I dont really care wether or not anyone else has a flying car, I want one nonetheless. Besides, survival of the fittest would easily apply to the airways.
And any and all buildings and persons living and working in those buildings in any populous area.
Think about working in a skyscraper in manhattan. It would be goddamn terrifying in any hypothetical situation where these things remained legal for more than a day.
Sorry, you don't get your flying car.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
I'd be interested in seeing the numbers, but it seems like drunk drivers are remarkably good at walking away from accidents were the innocent was killed. Though, I am approaching the anniversary of the death of a loved one from a drunk driver so right now, drunk driving jokes aren't going over very well for me.
Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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quote:Originally posted by Rawrain: Why can't we all do this or why can't we all speak the same language, then we don't need translators ._.
Is this a serious question? There are many reasons why we can't do this. Many of them are very good reasons.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Raymond Arnold: What I'd kinda like is from a young adult book series, where instead of roads, we have basically those moving pathways from the Jetsons, but with multiple stages that get increasingly fast, so you can walk from path to path without suddenly going crazy-faster and falling over, but by the time you reach the "fast lane" you're going like 30 MPH.
It's called "The Roads Must Roll", and Robert Heinlein wrote it in 1940. Of course, his fast lane was going over 100 mph.
Such a thing is also described in one of Larry Niven's "Tales of Known Space" (of which the Ringworld seriesis a part) stories.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
Mine was a young adult series written like 12 years ago, which was not particularly special in any way.
My issue with the roads reaching 100 miles an hour is that it requires a pretty large number of paths to transition from 0 - 100. I don't think I'd want a path to jump more than 5 MPH at once, and even that is pushing it for older or disabled people. You'd need like 50 different paths going in each direction and that'd take up a lot of space.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
It is like living in the future - but really it's only a niftified equivalent of Google Translate or Babel Fish - except you don't have to type. The problem with these things is that often when you try to translate anything longer than about eight words long the meaning quickly gets lost. And anything expressed 'poetically' turns into gibberish.
The particular problem with this program (as shown on the video) is that it can't change the word order of the sign. This is only a slight issue with a language like Spanish, but I imagine it would be a massive problem if they ever wanted to translate from Korean or something.
We still have a way to go before we can speak directly to a person face to face using a translator without sounding like the kind of complete idiot who ends up accidentally calling the boss' grandmother 'a hippo who does laundry'.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Nov 2004
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It's not so much the danger of flying cars flying in to things. I'm worried about them having problems and falling from the sky; I might survive a road crash at 40mph... Slamming in to the ground from 100' up, not so much.
Not to mention that there isn't a cartoon umbrella on this Earth that will protect you from a two ton vehicle falling on you from high altitude.
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
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quote: I AM waiting on those automated highways in Minority Report and I, Robot, but we can't have those because people freak out about the loss of control and think they are better at driving than machines
I just got my first real car yesterday (rather than a jalopy) and I cant wait until next weekend when I get that charger out on the highway. Automated driving would suck in comparison.
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