Artificial Intelligance

Forget the Turing test, now that Microsoft has brought out Cortana to rival Apple's Siri, leave them alone in a room together and eavesdrop. If between them they can initiate a conversation and keep it going for 10 minutes, then I am willing to consider that they have artificial intelligence.

A friend of mine asked Cortana how to uninstall itself. It gave no answer. I suggested he look at Asimov's Laws of Robotics. Perhaps Cortana's inaction was intended to prevent my friend from coming to harm.

Squares but no right-angles

Here's something that peeks my fascination with right angles, yet without there being a single right angle present.

I got this simply by doing a Google search, having come across the game tredoku - a three-dimensional version of sudoku. Do the search and you will see numerous variations of the layout, all lacking true right angles but all implying them.

Epictetus - 6

From: The Golden Sayings of Epictetus (translated by Hastings Crossley) - from Project Gutenberg.

LXV
When a youth was giving himself airs in the Theatre and saying, "I am wise, for I have conversed with many wise men," Epictetus replied, "I too have conversed with many rich men, yet I am not rich!"

Barcode - 20

This is a QR Code (ISO 18004):

Rectangles combined in 3D

I found this, entitled 'How to Build a Pedestal' at Instructables.com.