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The Dying DVR Box and Woz Wisdom
Lucas123 writes "At SNW in Santa Clara this past week, a diverse group of techies shared insights into their industries, such as the DVR market. TiVo's senior director of IT, Richard Rothschild, for instance, explained how those set-top boxes track everything you watch for advertising and marketing and then combine the information with supermarket membership card data to determine how effective ad campaigns are. Oh, and TiVo's planning to integrate its box with your flatscreen, so no more set-top device. And Steve Wozniak attacked the American education system, saying students should be graded on a single, long-term project rather than a short learning/testing cycle. 'In school, intelligence is a measurement,' he said. 'If you have the same answer as everyone else in math or science, you're intelligent.'"
I had no idea that he has a degree in education or did postgraduate studies in education or even home schooled his own children. Is this just as iffy as a Musical composer telling an engineer how to build a bridge?
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
but I can not take comments on intelligence seriously from a man who wasn't smart enough to say NO to Dancing with the Stars. Let the Flaming begin in 3...2...
Fast, cheap, correct. You get to pick two.
DVR will eventually just be a relic from the push model. The market appears to be moving towards a customer-centric model of streaming and delivery when and where we want it.
From the FA: "For one, those set-top boxes you cherish so much because they offer sans-commercial entertainment programs, also keep track of all your TV habits. "
I'm glad I have a MythTV and eyeTV ...as far as I know, they don't report back anyone's TV watching/recording habits to anyone
Release early and release often.
TiVo's senior director of IT, Richard Rothschild, for instance, explained how those set-top boxes track everything you watch for advertising and marketing and then combine the information with supermarket membership card data to determine how effective ad campaigns are.
I feel at least partially responsible for this. When I was working for a large cable TV head-end provider, I pitched this exact idea to upper management. Not as a way to track people, but as a way to prove to advertisers that cable advertising was effective.
I was told that the idea was unworkable and stupid, but six months later was put in charge of a project to roll out the 'brilliant idea from one of or top executives'.
So yeah, sorry everyone.
I think Soulskill had to make sure he met his daily trolling quota.
Apparently all of the following are on topic: TiVo, Apple, and IQ.
This rivals the recent post where they managed to squeeze in a subtle emacs vs. vi troll into the summary.
'In school, intelligence is a measurement,' he said. 'If you have the same answer as everyone else in math or science, you're intelligent.'"
Well.. not really. Schools don't measure intelligence, they measure compliance and effort. If you're intelligent and willing, it's easier to comply with "memorize this crap" and "be able to solve math problems in this form" - but grades are not intended to measure intelligence, nor are they good at doing so. Nor would it make sense. The feedback mechanism grading is requires something you can change - and that's why grades usually target things that all students are capable of and that are easy to evaluate: memorization, putting time into a report, etc..
At issue, he said, are rules that tell each student exactly what they should be studying and when.
Everyone knows there's more effective ways to teach, but it's also clear why teachers have structure: how else are you going to address the needs of 30 different students - many of whom don't want to be there - and keep them all doing something vaguely productive?
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
"TiVo's senior director of IT, Richard Rothschild, for instance, explained how those set-top boxes track everything you watch for advertising and marketing and then combine the information with supermarket membership card data to determine how effective ad campaigns are."
And that's why I returned one that was given to me free. They can take those data-collecting electronic spies and shove them right up their fundament, sideways.
'If you have the same answer as everyone else in math or science, you're intelligent.'"
Hmm, someone doesn't understand the importance of being able to reproduce the exact results for a given equation. I was required to show my work when I learned long division and that trend continued through trigonometry and calculus. The measurement of "intelligence" is being able to demonstrate that you understand the concepts behind the math and science you are doing...not just picking a random answer on a multiple choice question.
"There ought to be limits to freedom." -George W. Bush
that western societies are devolving into creepy old men following and stalking each other or paying gangs of people to do it for them,
no need for a tag round your ankle in 21st century Earth comrade when you can get 10% off MSRP at largePurcha$ers premises all weekend!.
The way the US education system works: 16 weeks of ramming information down student's throats, test, another session of throat ramming, and then Summer off to do nothing - or take more condensed versions of subjects. And in those 16 weeks, there are 8 week or less sessions where you got to cram material for a mid-term or what have you. And the retention rate is - 20% at best. In order to innovate is to be able to remember information and concepts - it allows the brain to stew on it.
In the article (yeah, I really read his part) Woz's says that projects can take up to years. He never expounded on how these long-term projects should take, or at what level he would like to implement them. From kindergarten to 5th project. 6th-9th? 10th-12th? K all the way through 12th? I like his premise, but then he goes off and says he developed the floppy disk for Apple in 2 weeks. Is that long term? Woz is a really smart guy and has done tons of good, but bring some clarity when you are declaring the need for changes. I personally agree with him that a, say, semester long (2 to 4 months) project should be able to teach a lot more than the memorize, test, & forget form of study. Longer than that and you are most likely getting into implementation phases.
My 2 bananas worth.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
no as long as they don't have live sports and ISP has small download caps
class where you can just cram for the test need to go and be replaced with a group project for the grade and get rid the filler classes that are full of stuff like this.
I had no idea that he has a degree in education or did postgraduate studies in education or even home schooled his own children. Is this just as iffy as a Musical composer telling an engineer how to build a bridge?
You are correct, you have no idea. After leaving Apple Wozniak gave back to the community, literally, as a fifth grade teacher at a local public school. He instructs teachers on the use of technology. He also setup and helped maintain, personally, computer labs at local schools. So he does know a little about child education.
...what is this story about?
I would potentially buy a new big screen if it had netflix or pandora integrated but would never buy one with a blu-ray, dvd or hard disk. How many of you like bundling failure-prone or potentially outdated devices into your most expensive component?
This is fucking stupid.
Are we discussing the education system or are we discussing set top boxes?
These are two completely different topics and should not be merged like this.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
The earth is 6,000 years old
"If you have the same answer as everyone else in math or science, you're intelligent."
First of all, you're graded on getting the answer right (often including showing how you arrived at your answer), not on your agreement with your classmates. If 90% of your classmates got the same wrong answer, you aren't "intelligent" for getting the same answer as they did. Second, if everyone in your class gets the same answer, then something is very wrong - probably the course-work is way too easy.
The cable TV model is doomed, due to streaming. Cable TV will be for the next decade what the land-line home telephone was for the last decade - everyone's favorite way to cut costs. Comcast, et al., will have to find ways to squeeze more money out of people like me who got rid of cable because we were paying $75 a month for just one or two channels we felt we couldn't live without, probably via bandwidth caps.
And Steve Wozniak attacked the American education system, saying students should be graded on a single, long-term project rather than a short learning/testing cycle.
Those of us who want to become scientists or mathematicians (like myself) do get "graded" on a single, long-term project (I have 200+ pages of evidence of that at home). The only problem with a single project for the WHOLE grade is that if by chance something goes wrong (bad reagent or protocol) or it didn't work like you expected (*sarcasm* because nothing ever goes wrong in science *sarcasm*) you would have to spend more time (months+++ ?) or the project might fail. If your a grad. student you make due and move on but, I think that would completely demotivate most high school students. Besides K-12 is the time/place to learn the basics, like the multiplication tables, the periodic table, language, writing, etc., with some small projects to augment book knowledge. I can guarantee that I would not have been successful in my graduate career if I didn't have the 16+ years of structured education and short testing cycles that Woz has an issue with. And if I was only graded on a single project as a young student I might have failed early on and did something else than science.
"And now you shall learn the secret of boot to the head"
F all that education talk. My TiVO is going to be tied to my television choice?!
Why is it assumed that this is common knowledge? Even on THEIR home page it isn't immediately obvious what the name of the conference stands for.
Lack of live sports is a plus in my book.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Some schools and some classes do have longer projects (Think "Research Project" or "Term Paper"). But do you remember how these things go in high school? They just sit around for a while and then the kids do them in the last 2-3 days before they are due. If they are longer, the kids just goof around for more time (in general).
Something seldom heard these days, or, so it seems. When I was a kid in the 60's, I wish I had "cool parents". You know, the ones that bought their kid the newest anything, let them stay outside and play on a nice evening instead of doing your homework & getting to bed early. The kind that never attended a PTA, school board meeting, parent teacher conference. The kind that NEVER asked you "what did you learn in school today?" Nope, I didn't have one of those. My parents were the most involved, wanted to know everything I did at school, who I was hanging around, had to be in bed on a nice night before the sun went down if it was a school night, went to every parent teachers conference there was. Had a blanket understanding that you didn't need to call me if you thought he needed to be spanked because he will get two. One from the teacher, and one from me when he gets home. I THANK GOD every day that I had, what I thought was strict parents! I run into people I went to school once in a while, and some of them are still acting like they were in high school, plus always complaining how broke they are. School is a two way street for the most part. You only get out of it, what you put into it.
this is a lovely idea but surely isn't a complete vision of an education - part of the reason there are standard classes with standard exercises is that there are skills you need to have and background knowledge you need acquire to do the kind of cool stuff he envisions. You can't stand on the shoulders of giants if you don't climb up there and that is a lot of stuff to learn. Which doesn't mean that adding projects like this that drive a student to creatively exercise knowledge along the way wouldn't enrich and build on that understanding - just that you sort of do have to know what is already known to get to the point you can can add something new.
As a bonus, your local high school may also have 'advisory committees' (the name varies), which consists of folks actually doing a given subject matter for a living. Their function is to provide input as to what the world at large actually uses, which in turn allows a teacher to give priority to certain lessons over others.
For example, a CompSci advisory committee would likely want the curriculum to emphasize currently used technologies over those which see little-to-no usage out in the real world.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
maybe in your area but not in Chicago!
Perhaps not, but you could at least do a little research before posting your ignorant opinions all over the internet.
I jest. Proceed.
Mr. Wozniak: people often "have the same answer" because in math, science, and engineering, there are a lot of answers that are objectively true and unique. And I don't know what kind of rotten high school you went to, but many high schools do reward creativity and out-of-the-box thinking.
Mr. Rothschild: haven't you heard? The current for-profit invasion of people's privacy is through social networks and ad networks; you're in the wrong business.
"In subjects other than math and science, such as English, students are given essay assignments where individuality shines, where each pupil goes off on their own and creates an answer that's different from every other student's. And yet, that's not associated with innovation today, he said, but that's exactly the thinking schools and businesses need to apply to computer sciences. "
This is some of the context that is needed for the summary.
and this
Technology development projects reward innovators with a feeling of personal pride of accomplishing something no one else has done before, and "that's the sort of thing that inspires you to believe in yourself as an inventor type, not just an engineer who knows the equation."
http://blog.collins.net.pr/2011/04/would-you-trust-timewarner-to-manage.html Your cable provider maintains a data connection into your home, even if you dont use them for internet and use wimax/cell hotspot/steal the neighbours wifi instead to provide your home internet connection there is still a cable box sitting in most living rooms and most of the time it's doing very little. You can see with the recent timewarner/comcast/verizon value add functionality such as whole house dvr, ipad remote view, comcast remote dvr storage that they are all looking to develop additional functionality (and billing). So i guess my question is this, if your dvr is sitting there doing very little would you trust your cable company to put in wireless infra-red and motion detectors into your house and then use the dvr as a base monitoring system or do you have so little faith in the "cable company" for things to work properly that there is no way in hell you would trust them to monitor your home security....? What do you think?
Dude, 90% of my school/uni lectures were the same as a pre recorded video, but you couldnt pause it.
None of the teachers ever had time to stop and talk to a single student, the whole lesson could not afford a 'break' like that. It was pre scripted to fit in that 2hrs or 55 minutes.
Pracs on the other hand are different.
Your assertion that videos are bad , is like saying all books are bad.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
One must always be vigilant when the media-tainment industry is concerned. I won't be buying any of these integrated tv's with set-top boxes and dvr's anytime soon. The media-tainment industry is doing there best to remove our digital freedoms to record stuff and to prevent consumers to transfer their media easily to other devices that they don't manufacture or have no control over.
I won't be purchasing any "integrated TV" and I wouldn't recommend anyone to purchase them either if the media consumer is concerned about their digital freedoms.
Rothschild pronounced the DVR to be dying in the same way that Apple lies about technological directions, which is solely to stilt the public's thinking to focus on the supposed superiority of their own products. When the DTV/TIVO marriage tanked, DTV built their own DVR. TIVO lost a major teat to suck from. Inventing a new hardware paradigm for TIVO- a paper-logical one; it's TIVO's way of sprinkling some Apple white lies. Yes, it's logical to get rid of a separate set-top component box, but your TV-integrated-TIVO is a proprietary solution that only a fool would buy into. Either the TV or it's parasitical TIVO component dies? You shitcan the whole unit. TIVO is going to top the cost of the TV but $300-$500, and that premium will prevent it from competing. Also the TIVO component, unless able to couple closely with cable/satellite services, will function separately, not have that integrated feel of a sat/DVR or cable/DVR, and nobody wants a feeble solution.
re bridges falling over - probably the contractor screwed up - back in the day (working for a top 5 consulting engineers) i did a custom reverse engined program to help look at the tests done on the ground to see whose fault it was :-)