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Backing Up Your Brain
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Thu Nov 15, 2007 12:41 PM
from the error-document-not-found dept.
from the error-document-not-found dept.
couch_warrior writes "Microsoft is now working on a system that will back up the contents of your brain.
The pilot project lacks a direct brain interface, but "MyLifeBits" will provide a simulacrum of actual memories.
No mention is made as to whether Microsoft will claim to own the digital rights to the content of your life, or what license fees you will have to pay to access your own memories." Honestly this looks like a bunch of hooey to me, but I figured others would be better suited to say.
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Requested Patch for Slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)
So instead of going on a tyrranical rant about this and bringing CmdrTaco's mother into it, let's look at how we could avoid this in the future.
I don't know what the administrative interface looks like for Slashdot, hell, I haven't even been given mod points yet despite regular meta moderation. But I'll bet that if you plugged the domain restriction plus the title of the proposed article into your favorite search engine, you could avoid 75% of all dupes. So in Google, this article would be:
Putting Your Brain into A Computer [slashdot.org]
But what if it was possible for the admin to select keywords/phrases from the submission and have that generate search links to the search engine. Two obvious ones would be Gordon Bell [google.com] and the de facto dupe finding token MyLifeBits [site].
And with that last one, we come up with Backup Your Life on a DVD [slashdot.org] and Recording Your Entire Life [slashdot.org]. Two very similar articles to the subject at hand (the Gordon Bell search has no dearth of articles either). A few minutes of linking this to Vannevar Bush and you find Your Life On a Hard Drive [slashdot.org].
If this is an update piece and you want to update us on the project, at least link to the plethora of articles related to it! My god, how many times must we discuss this man's dreams to do this? Where are the results already? I swear every single time this comes up, it's mere speculation. The editor even says so after the summary!
Ever look in a mirror to see another mirror .... (Score:5, Funny)
Does the management software manage to do what CmdrTaco cannot? Remove dupes?
Parent
Had to be done... (Score:5, Funny)
CS: We're looking at now.
DH: So go back to then!
CS: It's too late, we've passed it.
DH: We were just looking at then!
CS: That was then, this is now.
DH: So when will then be now?
CS: Soon.
Parent
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I just find the whole idea that microsoft would take your rights to your content away from you. A lot of authors use MS Word (many publishers require the format, and OpenOffice still screws up a couple of formatting issues when saving into word 97/2K/XP). I've yet to hear any complain about MS taking their stuff. For that matter, all the photos, videos and documents (word, excell, etc.) that I had stored on my Windows machine? None were taken by MS, and they all work fi
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None were taken by MS, and they all work find...
Are you sure about that?
(Yeah, yeah, but it was low-hanging fruit.)
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must not have worked... Guess that's what "typod: package not found" meant...
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Re:Requested Patch for Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
They're backups.
Parent
You just don't get it (Score:5, Insightful)
Slashdot, like most media, has to attract eyeballs. If they printed on the frontpage "no news today" they wouldn't be making any money. So the slashdot editors have the task of keeping a steady stream of stories on the frontpage. So that when you visit it, you get some new story to read.
But not yet any story will do, it needs to be a story that people will react to. So that they post comments, so that it looks like an active site.
A slashdot story where ALL you needed to know was in the headline and had no room for discussion, well, you could just get that from the RSS feed, no page load, no ad load, no eyeballs.
You posted a comment to this story, I posted a comment to you. Mission accomplished. All you have shown is that the story attracted eyeballs.
In Terry Pratchets discworld book "The Truth" the patrician (local ruler) makes an observation about a newspaper. "Ain't it nice how there is always just enough news to fit the page, no spaces left open or anything".
The newspaper needs to be full, it needs to get read. That is a newspapers mission.
If you really want to tell the editors to stop doing this. STOP REPLYING.
Oh, and there is another thing to consider, slashdot is NOT a news site. It is an intresting things site. Nobody ever claimed that intresting things have to be new.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Look up... a little bit more... there it is: "NEWS FOR NERDS. STUFF THAT MATTERS."
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Re:You just don't get it (Score:5, Insightful)
In particular, the GP wasn't saying that Slashdot should be a news site, or even saying that dupes are an egregious sin. Instead, he was providing possible ways for making such stories useful instead of aggravating. It is indeed aggravating to read something only to discover that it's more-or-less the same thing you've already read, but much less so if you're forewarned about how this fits in with previous stories. Slashdot has made some progress in this department (with the "Related Stories" links), but more work needs to be done. A "dupe" isn't necessarily bad if it is framed properly (e.g. "here's an update on X" or "it's been awhile since we've heard about X" or "for those of you who missed the last story on X, here's another one"). I'm pretty sure that people will still load Slashdot, still join the discussion, and so forth. What we are asking for is not that every article be totally fresh and original, but that summaries are accurate and useful, which means pointing out how the current news/article differs from previous news/articles on the same subject (if it's a dupe, just say so!).
For those of us who like Slashdot and read many of the stories, unlabeled dupes are annoying... and we want to help fix the situation. An upgrade to the Slashdot admin interface (which tries to auto-detect dupes or related links) is one solution. Another one, which would exploit the collective memory (and detail-oriented nature) of Slashdot readership would be to allow people to add "related links" to articles (preferably at the firehose stage). If enough people add the same link (maybe weighted by karma), it is probably not linkspam and can be promoted automatically to be displayed. This would give editors information on related stories, and allow them to better judge the novelty of a submission.
Parent
My brain already backs up (Score:3, Funny)
Wow-BSOD takes on a whole new meaning... (Score:5, Funny)
Oh Lots of fun (Score:4, Insightful)
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I think if I get wind they are, I will just start a diary of false stuff, like embarrassing things that they don't want associated with them.
Would be interesting to see if they censor out bitch sessions about shitty experiences with vista, or false claims of another leaked wish list, or advance disclosure court proceedings our out-of-court settlements.
I guess in that case, THEY will decided whether our brains get full, incremental, differential or "SC
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You people who insist on an invention being, well, invented before working on derivative software for it are crazy. My patents alone should keep me in the market for years.
It's real (Score:4, Informative)
A good, extensive writeup can be found in Fast Company [fastcompany.com]. The original article is over half a year old and this idea from Gordon Bell has been known for years: he started working on this project in 1995.
Bunch of drama queens on slashdot talking about "omgz vaporware" "Microsoft doign what neuroscience cant? omgz" Read the goddamned article, not the FUD summary.
Parent
Big problems already (Score:2)
Could be worse. (Score:2, Funny)
This is the same thing that h
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ls -l brain | keg_of_beer | grep *wedding*
I put everything my wife tells me to
Can of Worms (Score:5, Insightful)
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You're right... (Score:4, Insightful)
this is kind of like (Score:3, Interesting)
or selling land on the moon... wait a second!? [lunarregistry.com]
this microsoft brain dump is obviously hokum, but in all seriousness, our ever growing hard drive densities, and the ubiquity of cameras nowadays, means the day is not far off when a newborn will be born and given a tiny innocuous camera implant on the side of his head, and his entire life will be videotaped
this is appealing and horrifying on a number of different levels
and it is probably only 5-10 years off
But the scary part is... (Score:5, Funny)
[X] Yes [] No
[X] Always trust Microsoft to restore your memories
Re:But the scary part is... (Score:5, Funny)
Cancel or Allow?
Parent
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We can recall it for you wholesale (Score:2)
Lori Quaid: "MIKROSOFT?! You went to those brain butchers?!"
Movies and music (Score:3, Insightful)
*how* (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
How about a face-plant on one big ass table? [youtube.com]
Product Activation (Score:5, Funny)
hold on a second (Score:2)
Clippy! (Score:2, Funny)
It looks like you are trying to have an*l s*x?
Do you want assistence with that [Y] [N]
Its impossible man (Score:2)
Who's gonna control your memories when you die? Do you really want to record everything, even when you cheat on your significant other? Do you really want to record when you're jacking off? Or taking a dump?
Shoulda called it "MyLifeBytes" (Score:2, Insightful)
Moronic exxagerration (Score:5, Informative)
He describes this as your memory, as an attempt to make it seem important instead of silly.
It is this artifical record he is talking about, not your real memory.
Thoughts (Score:2)
Second.. Can anyone say "Oh shit, my Windows OS just got infected and now all my memories are V14gr4 and c14115" ads..
Third
Please read the EULA agreement ... (Score:4, Funny)
Which version? (Score:5, Funny)
* MS Memories Home Premium (TM) - You're allowed to restore "up to" 10 memories, with a list of restrictions covering a page in 3 point text, notably that only individual, not shared nor professional memories are permissible.
* MS Memories Business (TM) - Restores any job related memories. As if anyone wants to remember them.
* MS Memories Ultimate (TM) - Any and all memories can be restored, or they would if the driver for your brain was functional. There's even "Extras" that will provide supplemental memories for those with exceedingly boring lives, such as readers of
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restoring (Score:4, Insightful)
Summary is brain-dead (Score:3, Insightful)
It is not "hooey" either, as the web really is a memory extender just try Google. Or ask Ted Nelson, whose work on Xanadu hypertext for example is tracable to his own faulty memory which he overcame by carrying ring-bound cards on his belt.
The only problem with this of course is that Microsoft is involved. They are inevitably going to spread their smarmy-feely corporate crap all over it. And you know what's going to happen, you will see people buy other people's lives (as a 100GB file download of multimedia clips indexed by time and location) and act all superior and shit.
They always describe these things in glowing terms that make you think of your Mom scanning in family photos to email her kids but in the end they end up owning your ass. That part of it wasn't hooey.
Now an open source version of this would be cool. I wouldn't have to write stuff down, just surf back a la Time Machine or if anyone has tried it, Gelernter's Mirror Worlds which was an interesting Java desktop demo that puts you in mind of the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. If someone tagged bits of their lives meaningfully it might be useful, even restaurants might get better service.
Brain Backup vs NTBackup (Score:3, Informative)
P.S. Whose idea was it to include Active Directory with System State and not let you restore one without the other, hmm? Maybe I don't WANT to restore the rest of my registry.
WGA Detects Brain as Non-Genuine (Score:5, Funny)
BSOD? (Score:4, Funny)
"Uh, we're indoors. You're brain just BSOD'd!"
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