Remember the movie Minority Report?
That's exactly what Kinect can do together with a 3D screen!! Well, probably not. Detecting the typing action of the fingers would require a lot more precision than I'm expecting from Kinect. You see, I think it's only going to be able to see broad strokes like when you swing your entire hand, not the minute thrusts of our nimble fingers. But take note that I have not tried it out yet.
Still, this means that even if Kinect cannot do it, we're still going to be able to see the computers in Minority Report become a reality, provided 3D gaming becomes popular enough to make this field lucrative. With 4 big companies selling 4 different 3D consoles simultaneously, it looks like it will.
It will obviously be many more years before we get to see virtual keyboards jumping out of the screen, but I'm very sure it will be happening. It just requires a larger screen, that's all. Or a projector that projects the 3D keyboard/controller onto a separate surface.
Maybe it's just me but I thought this news article was pretty ridiculous. This guy was executed by a now-banned form of execution because when he was sentenced to death it had not been replaced by lethal injection yet. Took the American legal system 25 years after he killed his victim to finally end his life.
25!
That's not the worst. What I find most absurd was this paragraph:
Gardner's supporters said he had been abused as a child and suffered mental illness before the murders but had changed while in prison. Gardner recently told a parole board that he hoped to start an organic farm program for at-risk youth.
First point is that he had supporters. Supporters. He killed a man with a future. That man must have had family, relatives and friends, maybe even children. How many were scarred by his action in 1985?
Second, if murderers are pardoned just because they have changed, how is that justice? He didn't torture or rape, so IMO a quick death is justified. A comfortable death like the lethal injection? No. In fact, lethal injection is too nice. Most people can only dream of ending like that.
Quoting from Wikipedia's article on this form of execution:
It kills the person by first putting the person to sleep, then stopping the breathing and heart in that order.
Honestly, I wish I can die like that when my time comes.
The death penalty is the only way you can have an eye for an eye without making the world go blind because few ever take revenge against the legal system. Plus, if you just want people to change instead of punishing them, it isn't justice that you're after, just brainwashing.
But that's not the point of most legal system. If you have the figure of the Lady Justice anywhere in the architecture of your buildings, it automatically implies that you're interested in justice and not just changing people.
Then again, the American legal system really isn't known for its impartiality and meting out of justice.
And the death of a convicted murderer making the front page of Reuters? Better men have died more tragic deaths than this! What's the world coming to?
I was surprised when some time ago, someone jokingly said something to the effect that I don't have morals. Of course I have morals; life would be much more complex than I can handle if I have to judge every situation on its own.
This is how I define morals: a set of sweeping statements that judge deeds. For example, "homicide is always wrong" or "stealing is always wrong".
Like I have said before, it's basically a shortcut so that we don't have to think too much about everything. We wouldn't have time for ourselves if we have to look at each and every murderer in the world and research on their personal lives, childhood and whatever.
For example, if a man intentionally kills a wanted and proven serial killer, is he wrong? If you judge this by this case alone, you may say that homicide is right and justified. But by most moral standards, all murder is wrong and all executioners are evil.
This is exactly what I mean. So obviously we need morals to get by, including me. It's not like I'm a genius or that I have a supercomputer inside my head. There simply aren't enough of such exceptions in life to justify not having a set of moral codes to speed things up.
If I do appear to have no morals to you, that's only because our moral compasses don't point at the same North.
Orchard Road has been flooded for a few days now. Pretty bad. All those basement shops there that have been submerged make entrepreneurship look like a poor career option at the moment. It's not just the damaged goods (unless they were selling diving gear), but also the electronics inside like the air-conditioning systems, and the destroyed decor. Walls will have to be repainted and redecorated, ceilings too except for those made of plaster of paris which will have to be replaced entirely. Carpets will either have to be dried very thoroughly or changed completely. Those who try to scrimp and save money will risk mould and that will really ruin the appearance of the shops.
As usual, everyone has his/her own theories. Me, I agree partly with the following statement (copypasta from link):
Some like user EHF wondered about the poor drainage facilities along Orchard Road. He said, “Basically, no proper drainage system to go along with rapid buildings being built (sic). Relevant authories need to really look into present drainage system.”
I don't know if it has much to do with the new structures in the area. What I am sure of is that the Government was unable to foresee such a disaster. People make mistakes, to err is human, am I right? But the Singapore Government is not supposed to be "human".
Take the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, AP Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, for example. FYI the PUB, which is responsible for this mess, is under his ministry. According to this website, his annual salary is S$2.6M. Even if the website is full of shit (it doesn't seem to list its sources), his pay is still at least at S$1.57M. That's a minimum monthly salary of S$130,833.33.
Now compare this with the British PM's salary, which covers both his job as the PM and as a lawmaker. At 207,000 pounds a year, that's a monthly pay of S$35,424.58.
Even if we ignore the differences in responsibilities, the huge disparity in the sizes of land masses they're in charge of and/or the number of people their decisions affect make it logical to say that Singapore Ministers should be over 10 times more capable than politicians of other countries and therefore do not err!
Or else, what the heck are we paying them quadruple/quintuple/sextuple salaries for? We're paying for the best, so is this the best he can do?
Is this the absolute best that Singaporeans can offer? After all, every minister's pay is backed by the reasoning that he/she is the most suitable person for his job among all five million of us. I'm not trying to assign blame, but in this case I definitely am questioning his foresight, our abilities as a people and the reasons for picking him for this post. If a Singaporean minister is not at least 4 times as capable as the average minister, if he is not at least 4 times as perceptive when picking talents for his ministry, then I also question the justifications for his income.
I know I can't do better but I am not sure if no other Singaporean can.
And if anyone should argue that hiring people is the job of the HR department, they can shove that where the sun doesn't shine.
The articles on freedom of religion in Singapore is quite interesting. I thought it was quite funny when it mentioned that a former Chief Justice of Singapore indirectly included Jehovah's Witnesses as one of the "funny, cranky religious groups" and discussed the sanity of the Canadian lawyer who came to Singapore to defend some Jehovah's Witnesses in court.
Then when it mentioned Unification Church, another banned religion in Singapore, I clicked on the link. It's a religion which is something like Christianity and believes that this South Korean guy called Sun Myung Moon is the Messiah, ie the return of Jesus.
What I found curiously missing is the views of the Catholic Church and most of the Christian denominations on this Church. After all, this Church is pretty big, with the largest estimate of membership at a few million people around the world and is a legally established religion in South Korea.
Vic's abandonment of his blog at the moment reminded me of the following comic. Had to browse through the gallery a bit but I found it.
I am sure you can notice certain links between this and Vic's inaction, if you're familiar with his blog.
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