Has anyone considered, seriously, having a court-ordered psych exam for Thompson? As noted earlier, he's got rabid focus and loves the limelight; might indicate OCD and/or narcissism and/or {insert neurosis/psychosis here}. Might make it harder for him to keep filing frivilous lawsuits if he's deemed "officially" nuts. Do we have any lawyers/shrinks here that can comment?
...We got no closed captioning at all.
Wow. I've not run into that yet, and while I used to think the FCC would do something about it, I found otherwise. With a few exceptions, everything's supposed to be captioned by law. In reality, many channels won't broadcast them properly, with the Turner networks being the worst; TNT has around a 30%-40% captioning rate.
When I say "properly", I mean no "garbling", more verbatim captioning {some jokes/plot points are lost otherwise}, and more accountability for those who don't. As mentioned earlier, I tried to lodge a complaint vs. Kworld/V-Stream concerning one of their {admittedly cheaper} TV cards. Captioning was unavailable, they said when I emailed them. They maintained the hardware couldn't support it, as opposed to tweaking their TV app. As every TV since 1987 has, once again by law, been mandated to allow closed captioning, I asked them to implement CC with this in mind. No dice. The FCC rep, Jenifer Simpson, took months to "handle" this, saying finally that the FCC didn't think they should do anything. Kworld/V-Stream {same company} is still selling products to this day without captioning capability.
I'm not playing the "poor me" game; I went out and bought another brand TV card. Just remember, the fact that you can't see captioning doesn't necessarily mean your setup's wrong. Many channels stop captioning {and are allowed to} around 11-12 midnight. If you set it to CC1 {not CC2 or Teletext}, try news channels or any movie with the [CC] logo.
Side note: This is jus' for the USA, I'm not sure of the laws in other countries.
You probably lose a few pixels every billion, not really a big deal.
Believe it or not, I'm NOT looking forward to the all-digital cable switch in 2009. This hit home two nights ago, as we were watching Futurama. I was watching on my PC {analog} while my fiance and roommate were watching using the digital set-top box. We'd had some rain recently, and the set-top kept dropping seconds of video at a time. The analog connection had just a BIT of fuzz, but not enough to lose captioning [usually the first victim of low signal strength.]
... so I might be willing to share my apartment with a gay man, but certainly not a straight one.
Wouldn't that attitude be considered discriminatory in itself? I'm not trying to rag, but as I've had GBL friends for roommates, I'm not sure why orientation should be a problem in a respectful atmosphere...
SCO failed Microsoft... so, as the old saying goes, if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself.
Funny, the Emperor tried just that and it really didn't work out too well for him...
Wow. A clear and concise reply, on-topic, and insightful.... Thanks for your input; you've helped my boss out immeasurably {and scored me some brownie points to boot!}... I appreciate it!
And I'd bet that if yoru restaurant POS terminal crashes once a day, even during rush hour, and it is easily restarted with the power button, then the two minute delay is a pain, but will be acceptable by some managers. Some managers can live with it, but not the client I'm thinking of....
Looking at it from their side: They spent around $10-15,000 on a system that takes orders, prints them, handles CC transactions, etc. They {as many users} believe that for THAT kind of money, it SHOULD be bug-free. What logical points do you use with your clients to justify bugs/lockups?
If it causes your application to occasionally crash, when an operator is near-by, then it doesn't matter.
Says you. Try deploying a restaurant point-of-sale system that only crashes "occasionally". You'll have managers just LOVING your software when it goes down during rush hour. It matters...
After all, it's done no evil to any non-corp person so far, except in China. And even there it claims to be balancing the greater good against the censorship which it is fully acknowledging that it is doing, so whether it's "evil on balance" or not in China is at least debateable.
I'd have to say that trading someone's rights for corporate profit is bad on any level, but many would disagree.
... uploading superfluous information from the two lines above and the two lines below...The result is slower reading speeds and decreased comprehension.
WTF? This is how I've always done speed-reading...
...sure, if you lead a normal life... If, on the other hand, you seem to attract more improbable events than the Scarlet Witch, then paranoia can actually be helpful...
Nooo! Surely you jest!
We're not jesting.... and don't call us Shirley.
Seriously, though, with with number of geeks here that say they're running Vista/XP, I'm kinda surprised that nobody's set up a dual-boot system and timed it.
I'm about 60-70% deaf, and live in an apartment. Were I to watch TV/DVDs at the volume where I can hear it decently, we'd get noise complaints. {It's happened before, trust me...} My solution is simply a TV tuner card and a DVD-ROM drive. I can turn my headphones up to a good level and bother no one.
Here's my problem. With the advent of DVD DRM, a lot of titles now simply won't play in my PC without decryption of some sort. I have two choices: piss off my neighbors and apartment management and risking a lease violation/getting thrown out, or break the law/DMCA to watch an original, unpirated/unburned/paid-for copy of a movie on my PC in peace.
Not all of us are pirates, and I resent my legally-obtained media treating me as if I was.
...And HP is getting along fine without Carly...
I wouldn't hold Fiorina up as a shining example of leadership. She pretty much singlehandedly gave HP the biggest case of corporate indigestion since AOHell/Time-Warner with Compaq, drove off a good share of the company talent pool with drama queen theatrics, and was finally thrown out of office by the board of directors...
Most motion sensors wouldn't detect, say, someone sitting at a computer, reading slashdot.
Use your webcam with motion-sensing software. A number of "security" apps will let you trigger an external program that could very well fire off an X10 signal upon a sense event [or lack thereof.]
I know most of us are mouse potatoes, but I'm also fairly sure a large percentage make some form of perceptible motion within 5 minutes time.
(granted, futuristic SciFi novels about corporations having more power than countries are interesting to read, but we're not there yet)
Actually, we're technically there... Look at the income/profit difference between Micronesia and Coca-Cola. While an extreme example, it helps illustrate that we appear to be at the point where the largest companies ARE making more money than many of the world's smallest countries.
And what use, pray, are the other two nipples?
While it may not be a *PC* magazine, you could read Penthouse Forum for the answer to that one. Yay, dead trees!
Who reads computer magazines, anyway?
I do, preferring MaximumPC. I'm not claiming they're free of bias, but I've seen plenty of reviews stating QUITE clearly that the reviewed product was about as useful as a third nipple. Refreshing!
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 ...anyone else just print out this number to stick on their wall? Let 'em try to pull the sites down; I doubt they'll be able to ransack the collective homes/businesses that now have this in hard copy. I've not laughed this hard since Sony's $1-Sharpie-Workaround.
However, in practice, this would mean that there is almost zero financial incentive to produce new innovative, software outside of the service revenue model.
So this would have the effect of keeping corporations from feeding us as much sheer crap, while enabling enthusiasts to get back to creating tools instead of trolling patents to see if they'll be sued.
Slashdot Mirror
Has anyone considered, seriously, having a court-ordered psych exam for Thompson? As noted earlier, he's got rabid focus and loves the limelight; might indicate OCD and/or narcissism and/or {insert neurosis/psychosis here}. Might make it harder for him to keep filing frivilous lawsuits if he's deemed "officially" nuts. Do we have any lawyers/shrinks here that can comment?
Meat? When did they stop using lips and feet?
Wow. I've not run into that yet, and while I used to think the FCC would do something about it, I found otherwise. With a few exceptions, everything's supposed to be captioned by law. In reality, many channels won't broadcast them properly, with the Turner networks being the worst; TNT has around a 30%-40% captioning rate.
When I say "properly", I mean no "garbling", more verbatim captioning {some jokes/plot points are lost otherwise}, and more accountability for those who don't. As mentioned earlier, I tried to lodge a complaint vs. Kworld/V-Stream concerning one of their {admittedly cheaper} TV cards. Captioning was unavailable, they said when I emailed them. They maintained the hardware couldn't support it, as opposed to tweaking their TV app. As every TV since 1987 has, once again by law, been mandated to allow closed captioning, I asked them to implement CC with this in mind. No dice. The FCC rep, Jenifer Simpson, took months to "handle" this, saying finally that the FCC didn't think they should do anything. Kworld/V-Stream {same company} is still selling products to this day without captioning capability.
I'm not playing the "poor me" game; I went out and bought another brand TV card. Just remember, the fact that you can't see captioning doesn't necessarily mean your setup's wrong. Many channels stop captioning {and are allowed to} around 11-12 midnight. If you set it to CC1 {not CC2 or Teletext}, try news channels or any movie with the [CC] logo.
Side note: This is jus' for the USA, I'm not sure of the laws in other countries.
Believe it or not, I'm NOT looking forward to the all-digital cable switch in 2009. This hit home two nights ago, as we were watching Futurama. I was watching on my PC {analog} while my fiance and roommate were watching using the digital set-top box. We'd had some rain recently, and the set-top kept dropping seconds of video at a time. The analog connection had just a BIT of fuzz, but not enough to lose captioning [usually the first victim of low signal strength.]
I'll take robust over bandwidth.
Other than Slackware, that is...
Wouldn't that attitude be considered discriminatory in itself? I'm not trying to rag, but as I've had GBL friends for roommates, I'm not sure why orientation should be a problem in a respectful atmosphere...
I prefer military coffee.... You just cut a slice off and chew!
Funny, the Emperor tried just that and it really didn't work out too well for him...
Wow. A clear and concise reply, on-topic, and insightful.... Thanks for your input; you've helped my boss out immeasurably {and scored me some brownie points to boot!}... I appreciate it!
/me checks to be sure he's on /. .....
Some managers can live with it, but not the client I'm thinking of....
Looking at it from their side: They spent around $10-15,000 on a system that takes orders, prints them, handles CC transactions, etc. They {as many users} believe that for THAT kind of money, it SHOULD be bug-free. What logical points do you use with your clients to justify bugs/lockups?
Says you. Try deploying a restaurant point-of-sale system that only crashes "occasionally". You'll have managers just LOVING your software when it goes down during rush hour. It matters...
I'd have to say that trading someone's rights for corporate profit is bad on any level, but many would disagree.
WTF? This is how I've always done speed-reading...
...sure, if you lead a normal life... If, on the other hand, you seem to attract more improbable events than the Scarlet Witch, then paranoia can actually be helpful...
We're not jesting.... and don't call us Shirley.
Seriously, though, with with number of geeks here that say they're running Vista/XP, I'm kinda surprised that nobody's set up a dual-boot system and timed it.
Any takers?
Let me give you another take on this.
I'm about 60-70% deaf, and live in an apartment. Were I to watch TV/DVDs at the volume where I can hear it decently, we'd get noise complaints. {It's happened before, trust me...} My solution is simply a TV tuner card and a DVD-ROM drive. I can turn my headphones up to a good level and bother no one.
Here's my problem. With the advent of DVD DRM, a lot of titles now simply won't play in my PC without decryption of some sort. I have two choices: piss off my neighbors and apartment management and risking a lease violation/getting thrown out, or break the law/DMCA to watch an original, unpirated/unburned/paid-for copy of a movie on my PC in peace.
Not all of us are pirates, and I resent my legally-obtained media treating me as if I was.
I wouldn't hold Fiorina up as a shining example of leadership. She pretty much singlehandedly gave HP the biggest case of corporate indigestion since AOHell/Time-Warner with Compaq, drove off a good share of the company talent pool with drama queen theatrics, and was finally thrown out of office by the board of directors...
Not something I'd care to be known for...
Use your webcam with motion-sensing software. A number of "security" apps will let you trigger an external program that could very well fire off an X10 signal upon a sense event [or lack thereof.]
I know most of us are mouse potatoes, but I'm also fairly sure a large percentage make some form of perceptible motion within 5 minutes time.
Actually, we're technically there... Look at the income/profit difference between Micronesia and Coca-Cola. While an extreme example, it helps illustrate that we appear to be at the point where the largest companies ARE making more money than many of the world's smallest countries.
While it may not be a *PC* magazine, you could read Penthouse Forum for the answer to that one. Yay, dead trees!
I do, preferring MaximumPC. I'm not claiming they're free of bias, but I've seen plenty of reviews stating QUITE clearly that the reviewed product was about as useful as a third nipple. Refreshing!
You aren't, perchance, related to the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal, are you?
Nay, Sir....
...and thanks for the 30-year flashback!
Ya said the rhyme, ya did the crime...
So this would have the effect of keeping corporations from feeding us as much sheer crap, while enabling enthusiasts to get back to creating tools instead of trolling patents to see if they'll be sued.
Fine, where's the downside?