Years ago I saw a television program on Artificial Intelligence, which still effects my thinking today.  “The Machine that Changed the World: The Thinking Machine”, program had a final segment on Cyc Corp, where they were saving common sense rules to a computer. If you follow this link click on last segment, 1990s program.

This television season with at least 2 1/2 programs dealing with computer learning and the fear associated with mankind giving up the top knowledge  keeper job on this planet; I keep referring to problems in this video of CYC reconciling its database.  The TV programs are “Person of Interest”, “Almost Human” and “Intelligence” with Intelligence being a stupid remake of the Terminal Man.

These programs skip the common sense problem at jump to AI learning compassion, caring, or greed and ambition.  Did they see how alien an intelligence trapped in a machine would seem to us?  Or us and our world to that intelligence?

 
When I was a preteen, I inherited on obsolete manual typewriter when my mother upgraded to a small portable electric. Later, I got an computer and was shocked to find the caps lock didn’t disengage when hitting the Shift key. The manufacturer choose to follow the IBM PC idiocy. Of course I would install a routine which would fix the problem, but over the years and newer computers, some place in a forgotten past, I gave up the fight. I had to be ready to use the computer at hand and a bad standard won.

There are two bad standards in North American television: interlacing and 29.97 frame rate. I was around when we were planning digital transmission, and was just buoyant for the one good change (square pixels in HD). Although Sony was challenging that refinement with 1440 non-square pixels for 1920, we one that battle.

Talking to a colleague, I determined the worst television guideline is the weird frame rate.

Now might be the time to change that. Not to 30 Frames per Second, but 72 progressive FPS (Frames Per Second); or 3 times the film’s rate of 24 FPS. Film projects each of the 24 frames twice.

The main problem interlacing and the slow frame is the lack of temporal resolution. This messes up rapid camera pans, and rapid motions. Some of the new action movies, make fight scenes look like dancing under a strobe light.

I would rather watch my favorite sport, NFL football, on 720p rather than 1080i, but 60 FPS isn’t there. I’m not a big gamer, but the 70 FPS is a noticeable improvement. So, let’s pick a world-wide standard, based on another world-wide gauge the frame rate of motion pictures.

60 minutes had a story on “Bill Gates 2.0” and offered an additional feature on the “60 minutes overtime” web site.  Normally, I don’t surf during broadcasts; but I had my new iPad next to my chair.

Every attempt I made to go to this web page was redirected to download “CBS News App” for iPad.  I changed from my Google Chrome to the Safari (built in) but still couldn’t get past this redirection.  I even located the URL of the page from searching and was redirected.

The REALLY sad part is the link to download the App was broken or the App was removed from the store.  Even though I didn’t want to collect another App to my remove from all devices zone, because: I want “all the web” not just your little corner; I was briefly willing to download the App to read or view this extra content.

I am often amazed by the thermal knowledge of chief engineers at broadcast stations, they know BTU ratings of every major unit AC unit.

This knowledge is a reflection of the energy waste yesterday and today.  Heavy air conditioners move BTUs of heat created by expensive custom equipment moving bits mostly representing silent black or audio tone over test patterns.  Repeated patterns of uncompress bits are used because of the custom nature of old broadcast equipment, to which these chief engineers add duplicates for redundancy.

This week I have been traveling, working in client facilities, sometimes uncomfortably chilled, because thermal balance of this waste heat is still a bane of broadcasters.  As LEDs replace picture tubes and overhead mini spots, will there be a revolution in smart thermal engineering?