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Computers: What do you need them to do that they won't do now?

JAVO

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What do you or your organization need software or computers to do that they currently won't do now?

I'm making a list of projects I'd like to do someday which I'll never get around to actually doing.
 

INTJMom

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What do you or your organization need software or computers to do that they currently won't do now?

I'm making a list of projects I'd like to do someday which I'll never get around to actually doing.
Okay! Would you please make an easy to use program that will take all my addresses which are in a column in a word document and print them on Avery labels (of my choice) for mailing? Or make a MUCH easier program to use than Access? I do not want to copy and paste 120 names and addresses one by one.

Right now I have an Avery template, but it's only one page of 30 labels, not infinite. So I have 5 separate pages of names and addresses. If I want to take one person off my list and put someone else on my list, I have to open each page of labels with names I have saved until I find a name I want to get rid of and put the new name in there.

I would prefer it to work like a Word column. I would want to add that name and address where it makes sense - keeping the alphabetical order. And I'd want the addresses to move by themselves filling in the blank labels but keeping the proper spacing.
 

ygolo

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virtual, dynamic, unified tools platform.

What he said.

Just generally being able to import data from any program to another and be able to fill in details more easily is most immediate. .NET has a long way to go.

In addition, I want to be able to very quickly have all my written, and print material to be transfered to electronic versions.

I want e-paper also. The tablets are not sensitive enough yet to be used like paper.

I want to be able to search (at google like power) for visual patterns.

Mass customized manufacturing. People should be able to specify their cars, electronic components, etc.(over the web) and have them be made it order in large dynamic factories.

I want to be able to think and have my brainwaves interpreted by robots that obey what I think. Duke University already had Monkeys do this, years ago, if it sounds far-fetched. Now we need to find ways to make it less invasive.

I want a pensieve (like in Harry Potter) based of above technology, to store my thoughts as I have them.

I also want to be able to surf the web by thinking.
 

miss fortune

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hmmm.... not realistically-

- make me tea and food
- play with the dog while I'm away at class
- clean my house and do laundry
- "other things"

realistically-

- not decide that what I'm really doing while reading something is highlighting and deleting it
- that it would not wish to be restarted after an update
- an even better spell check that can more easily decode my horribly mangled and misspelled words!
- that it would recognize Portuguese more easily- it's NOT Spanish!!! Don't spell check it in Spanish! :steam:
- That the keyboard had keys for letters in the Spanish and Portuguese alphabets that don't exist in ours- I have much better things to memorize than codes for how to type a tilde over my letters! :cry:
 

Jae Rae

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Self-cleaning. No pop-up ads! More email from INJ friends. [smile.]

Jae Rae
 

htb

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Achieve at least half of what Jaron Lanier thinks they should.
 

cafe

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Email that auto-replies to forwards with a link to the the appropriate snopes article and instantly deletes the forward. :devil:
 

Athenian200

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Well, one thing I'd like them to do is have a program that can act like a person convincingly, so that you could feel like you were interacting with people even if you don't have anyone to talk to. And so I can have another perspective on any situation readily available.
 

miss fortune

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oooh- a program that I could bounce ideas off of would be awesome! :D

(good idea Athenian, since I just took a subpart of your idea that I would find ESPECIALLY useful! :) )
 

Jae Rae

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Well, one thing I'd like them to do is have a program that can act like a person convincingly, so that you could feel like you were interacting with people even if you don't have anyone to talk to.

Such a program already exists. I just heard about it on NPR. It's a scam that gets you to give out your personal ID information after making a convincing contact.

Jae Rae
 

ygolo

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Email that auto-replies to forwards with a link to the the appropriate snopes article and instantly deletes the forward. :devil:

You can do some of this with appropriate use of rules you set-up for your mail account. It depends how much you are willing to trust the automation.

I've never used it, since I seemed to have been fairly free of spam in my inbox. But I've heard great things about this thingy. It may help:
MH & nmh: Email for Users & Programmers

Also, there is free initial code available for a web-crawler:
Writing a Web Crawler in the Java Programming Language

And there is also cheap-labor available:
Rent A Coder: How Software Gets Done -- The most completed software projects on the internet

So if you can specify exactly what you want and can pay for it, it can probably be done.
 

ygolo

My termites win
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hmmm.... not realistically-
- make me tea and food

Hmm...we have other things that can do these. We can always stick computers in them if you want. I think you may be surprised to find out how many processors are in your car alone.

- play with the dog while I'm away at class
- clean my house and do laundry
- "other things"

Maybe the Roomba could do these things?
It depends on how easily amused your dog is, and what the "other things" are.

Just wanted to break the paradigm of a computer being the thing that sits on your desk or on your lap.
They do a lot of different things, and even your PC is more than just your computer+software (though I always automatically replace "computer" with "information processor").
 

Athenian200

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Such a program already exists. I just heard about it on NPR. It's a scam that gets you to give out your personal ID information after making a convincing contact.

Jae Rae

Well, I was thinking more along the lines of one that could have a conversation with me about any topic I chose and have realistic responses, rather that one that would try to talk me into giving it money. You know what I mean?
 

ygolo

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Well, I was thinking more along the lines of one that could have a conversation with me about any topic I chose and have realistic responses, rather that one that would try to talk me into giving it money. You know what I mean?

There is the classic line of research in A.I. based on the ELIZA program.

It was covered in all my A.I. classes in high school and undergrad. The last time was much more sophisticated where we gave our "ELIZA" a personality with interests, and some amount of knowledge representaiton and natural language parsing.

That was years ago. Of course, these days nobody uses the term A.I. seriously since it was over-hyped for so long.

Still, you could try out the bots. See how close they come to what you want.
 

Xander

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A case that has specified spaces to place radiators, pumps and reservoirs.
A case which is quiet without going to stupid extremes (ie is made out of metal thicker than note paper).
A motherboard which instead of introducing new bottlenecks and limitations, is modular and configurable.
Software that's written by people and not fricking one track minded programmers who think that three digits or some hexadecimal string is adequate as a means of reporting errors.
Optimisations programs that actually work instead of mucking up your computer.
A decent OS based on Windows XP which is actually more efficient and faster instead of coming with neon lights and surround sound ala Vista.
A version of Linux not written for geeks with ten year old hardware.
A computer system with an inbuilt second system which doesn't cost the earth and is integrated not just in the same case!

-How's that for a starter for ten?
 
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