Intelligence, Consciousness, and Life

Warning: This post is just me rambling.

Whenever I talk about my research sometimes the topic meanders to Artificial Intelligence. Specifically, two questions come up; (1) are these machines really thinking? And (2) will machines become as intelligent as people? It seems that people conflate three things in these discussions: Intelligence, Consciousness and Life.

Because us humans are Intelligent, Conscious and Alive, we often think of them as one property -- being Human. So when we say something is Intelligent, we automatically assume it also means that we are saying that something is Conscious and Alive. Thus, when we talk about Artificial Intelligence, sometimes this is confused with Artificial Consciousness and Artificial Life. And this is on top of the usual confusion with respect to Intelligence, Consciousness and Life.

Globe Tattoo on Fedora 12

How to get Globe Tattoo prepaid wireless working in Fedora 12
updated: added minor details, minor edits

It mostly just worked. By default, Network Manager and Modem Manager are installed. If not, install them first. I also installed the usb_modeswitch utility; but I didn't need it. The USB Modem is detected after about 10 secs.

• Create a new Mobile Broadband connection in Network Manager.
• Network Manager and Modem Manager detects Globe Tattoo as HUAWEI Technology HUAWEI Mobile
• Choose Philippines and Globe Telecom among the mobile broadband providers.
• Accept the default settings and Save.
• Edit the settings

After reading assorted forums and some trial and error, here are the settings in Network Manager that worked for me.

Using the Globe Tattoo Pre-paid SIM card.

• access number: *99#
• username: blank
• password: globe
• APN: http.globe.com.ph

Using my Globe Post-paid SIM card.
I inserted my Globe Post-paid card in the modem and it worked. I made sure that I had set my internet settings to TIME. (Send TIME to 1111 via text message)

• access number: *99#
• username: globe
• password: globe
• APN: internet.globe.com.ph

Other notes

• Markings on the USB Modem declare it as a Huawei E1552 HSDPA USB stick
• lsub shows it is a Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. E620 USB Modem
• lsub shows the USB ID as 12d1:1001
• The USB modem also shows up as a storage device with drivers and utilities for Windows, Mac OS. I didn't try these out. I usually just unmount this.
• A fancy colored sticker covers the LED indicator. The sticker was easy to remove, just peel slowly.
• The LED flashes green when connecting to 2G network.
• The LED flashes blue when connecting to 3G+ networks
• If the LED is steady the modem has successfully connected to the network.
• Under the SIM slot, there is a microSD card slot. I have yet to try this.
• I have 64-bit Fedora 12 installed on a Lenovo Thinkpad SL400; that's a topic for another post.

...and now back to the Program

After dealing with technical and personal problems, we are back on the net. Apologies to my three readers!

Regular posting starts tomorrow. Thanks for dropping by!

Welcome Thinkpad SL400

I could not afford the T-series nor the X-series. I settled for the small business line of Lenovo, the SL-series These have just about the same features but at half (or less) the price. What are the trade-offs?

• The SL-series are heavier and bulkier. Instead of using lightweight metal parts, thick plastic parts are used.
• Lower end video card.
• No roll cage in SL-series. The T- and X-series have a metal roll cage around the LCD and body to protect the unit from abuse. You can feel the difference in the LCD; the SL-400 flexes more.
• The SL-400 has a high gloss finish on the lid and the screen. Ugh. I really don't like this.

There are probably others that I have missed. These are the ones that I have noticed.

On the plus side, I got this one without any OS installed. Which means I don't have to pay for software that I don't use (i.e. Windows). I installed Fedora 11 (64-bit) and so far so good. I'll reserve another post for the Fedora 11 experience.

back from the dead

I haven't been posting as much lately and for that I apologize to my readers (all three of you). I have successfully defended my thesis proposal (CS298) and I am now in thesis proper (CS300). I plan to do my final thesis defense 2nd week of October.

What have we learned during the Marathon?

• Sign language recognition is hard. Sign language linguistics are decades behind spoken language linguistics. The field is wide open for different approaches to the problem.
• Data! Data! Data! A lot of data is needed. Collecting and documenting FSL, its many variants, and the local signs are of vital importance if we hope to understand the underlying structure.
• Focus the work. Far too many times we want the paper to be perfect when we are finished; and we don't start writing until we have all the pieces. Guess what? That's not going to happen. The papers and reports will always have something missing. We should always keep the big picture in mind, and focus on our little corner.
• Keep writing. Edit later. This applies to many things, not just reports and papers. In free/open source software terms, release early and release often. That's what your editor is for (and if you don't have and editor, your adviser). They tell you what is clear and what is not; what needs reworking; what's missing.
• Matlab is expensive. Too expensive it turns out. Since I don't have access to the Matlab installation 24/7 in the lab, I am forced to look at alternatives. Octave, Scilab and R are my candidates.

Onward!

Farewell Thinkpad X31

My notebook finally died. IBM Thinkpad X31 model 2672-B2U purchased sometime in 2003. No amount of poking, (re)assembly, or pleading would bring it back. When plugged-in (with or without battery) the lights would come on and sometimes the CPU fan, then nothing. Hard disk doesn't spin up (or down), display remains blank. It has been dying for about a year now; a few months ago I just have to keep plugging/unplugging (with or without battery) and it will eventually switch on. Now, it is officially dead.

I love the keyboard on the X31. I love the nipple mouse TrackPoint. I don't have to move my fingers away from the keyboard in order to use the mouse. I like the black matte finish (No fingerprints!) I like the fact that you could easily download the maintenance manuals and take the X31 apart. It is easy to add/replace the RAM, hard disk, Bluetooth card, and 802.11a/b/g network card.

I have set my sights on the latest Lenovo Thinkpad X-series. Now, I just need to raise the money.

marathon day 21: a long way to go

Data Collection

• total of 117 unique signs (60 2-handed signs + 57 2-handed signs)
• 3 signers per sign; on average 2 samples per sign per signer
• approximately 700 isolated sign samples
• 88 out of 700 isolated sign samples edited
• 63 grouped sign samples
• 37 out of 68 grouped sign samples edited

This is far from complete. In addition to editing the existing samples I also need to annotate and re-sample (resize) them appropriately. Analysis should reveal the direction(s) to take the research; this implies a new list will be made designed to capture/answer the questions raised during the analysis. One question already raised is this: what is the complexity of one-handed signs vs. two-handed signs?

Papers and Presentations

• draft Chapter 1: Introduction almost done
• draft Chapter 2: Review of Related Lit almost done
• draft Chapter 3: Research Problem started
• draft Chapter 4: Methodology started
• draft Chapter 5: Results has nothing yet
• elevator pitch presentation half-way done; needs more images/pictures
• proposal defense presentation not even close

The goal is to produce a draft that can be edited and tweaked for three purposes: (a) a mid-term report; (b) paper for publication; and (c) thesis proposal.