Here in Australia, the Nick channel has never shown Zim outside of a pack of programs, thus failing to list Zim properly in the guide. For ages it was part of "Slam" (4pm-6pm Sat/Sun), now it's buried in "Twisted Telly" (10pm-11:35pm Weekdays). And they've been looping 'round the same few episodes so much I thought it had been canceled.
Anyone who's considering writing a similar letter should include a copy of the form response and ask that they receive something different/better. That could be interesting.
Here's a statement that the stations should listen to;
A broadcast TV service that doesn't let me time-shift is of no use to me.
If I can't whack something on a tape and watch it later then I'm going to go somewhere else for my entertainment. My schedule runs around my schedule, not around TV.
Anyway, I have a nice big expensive analogue TV and an expensive analogue VCR and a large collection of video games stuff that all outputs analogue video signals and a subscription to a cable service that isn't anymore interested in upgrading to digital than I am. Analogue free-to-air could disappear this very moment and I probably wouldn't notice for a month, and I'd never care enough to do anything about it. Heck, Foxtel's gotten so crappy lately that I could probably cope if it went away too.
That's a damn good point. Here in Australia we've got Digital TV and we're supposed to be digital TV only by something like 2008. Thing is, the Pay-TV I subscribe to isn't going to change, or if it is they're just going to hand me another box with a composite (or maybe S-Video) output. And there's all the games consoles I've got (9 at last count) that work just fine with a standard old TV. I don't own a DVD player and in the same way I don't see me ever bothering with a digital TV. I'm happy with the quality of analogue, so I'll stick with that and avoid DRM. I'm sure many other people will be the same.
You know, for many people, suddenly losing access to free-to-air programming would not be the end of the world. Far from it, they'd probably find they had so much tim eon their hands that they could go out and meet people or do something useful.
I received a "receipt" email telling me that Company X had received my CV. It was in the form of a Word document with embedded graphics (letterhead/logo). It was over 300k encoded. I informed them that at A$0.17/MB (typical traffic costs after your monthly free limit is exceeded) it would have cost the company I used to work at 5 cents to receive and that it probably cost them something like that to send. Since I know that many IT/tech jobs advertised on local job sites attract several hundred applications, often within hours, I told them that the practice of sending Word attachments probably meant that each year one person at the company didn't get their PC upgraded (Nominal $A1,000-$A3,000 cost). It got their attention, but their HTML solution was so crappy that I think they're still sending Word attachments.
What do clueless managers have against plain text?
I don't like using Word as the format to share documents because;
I like to use a font called Book Antiqua that hasn't been installed by default with Office since version 95.
Printer information, including print margins, paper size, tray number, all screw things up just enough to risk major visual changes (or annoying problems like the document printing from the letterhead tray) at the other end. It's quite easy for an increase in printable area (or a change in font, see above) to result in two free-floating boxes printing on top of each other on the first page, rather than one on the first page and one on the second.
Word attachments can contain viruses. I'm always aware of this whenever I'm forced to send one, even though I keep my anti virus software up to date on a daily basis. I'm particularly careful when I receive one, typically only opening it in "Wordpad".
Meanwhile, my main email address runs through Spamcop which I have setup to strip any and all attachments (there's a warning in my email.sig). Quite frankly I don't need a 300+k Word attachment with embedded graphics to tell me 500bytes worth of "We have received your CV and won't ever bother getting back to you". If anyone sends an unsolicited attachment that could have been important, I ask for a plain-text copy as the body of an email message (I also kill HTML with Spamcop, which has returned the joy to reading emails).
I typically send out my CV as an Acrobat file. About 20% of the time I'm asked for a Word version. That's fine, I've got Word 97 installed and it's what I actually used to write the CV in the first place. I downgraded from 2000 recently and I'm much happier.
Wasn't there a zip folders thing in Windows 98 Plus?
Regardless, it's amazing just how many PC users don't actually understand the concept of a compressed file. You try emailing a zipped copy of your CV to any given job placement agent (or any random zip to any "salary man") and see if you get any reply other than a request for one "in word".
As if The Internet [echoing boom] has a monopoly on stealth advertising. In last month's Foxtel (pay-TV) guide -- which we now have to pay for, like it isn't a necessary part of cable -- there was a kids section in the middle. Puzzles, games, almost-news, then looking just like all the other elements are ads. About 20% of each page was a not-very-clearly marked advertisement, often providing a biased "review" of a product linked to a show on one of the kids channels.
I notice that section is absent from this month's magazine.
A page view is a page view, no one cares why. If you're a company that's not paying for click-throughs then you're funding a lot of people that quite possibily actively don't like you.
What they're more likely to lose money from is the higher-than-average percentage of/. readers that have ad-filters installed.
I agree. I worked in a real estate place for a couple of years and they only did two kinds of advertising in media: press releases and property listings. (Other than that they did bulk mailouts and cold calls.)
At one point the company was changing its name and they kept it secret from the staff until the day before so they could get a free press release in the state's only daily newspaper. If it had leaked out to some of the national dailies then the local one wouldn't have run it.
When the regular marketing twit went on holiday and up-and-coming marketing person doing unpaid work experience got vastly more press releases in the paper than her. This was the beginning of the end for the poor intern -- who was religated to secretary for the almost a year she was a paid staff member.
As if. I'm sure that if N*sync don't make it into the film it will either be because they didn't pay enough, or they were never going to be in it. Either way, I'm sure it's just one big cynical marketing exercise that has nothing to do with art and everything to do with shifting crap products.
Now I'm off to play a bit more Episode 1 Racer on my N64...
Even I've received spam from this dimwit, and I'm looking for a job in the same industry. If you wouldn't waste time reading the spam, don't waste time visiting the link.
I typically keep the RF key to my car in my jeans change pocket. I can tell which button is the lock and which is the unlock through the fabric, so I don't have to take it out to use it. This is effectively wearable technology. This is also about as complex and feature-rich as wearable technology needs to get.
Once a false positive, always a false positive?
on
The Eyes Have It
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· Score: 2
Those stats look bearable until you realise that it probably catches the same people as false positives every time. If implemented, it would probably make 5-10% of the travelling population's lives hell.
Bring it all over and get a GOOD transformer
on
Emigrating DVD's?
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· Score: 2
My recommendation would be to ship your entire AV entertainment collection over lock, stock and barrel and get a really decent step-up transformer. This page might help.. Otherwise, you might be able to get the power supply in your DVD player exchanged for a 110V version and get a TV that supports NTSC and PAL. I assume that there isn't a little switch on the back of your DVD player that lets you choose between 110V and 240V?
Of course, you could just sell your DVD collection and not replace it. I bet you haven't watched most of your titles for quite a while -- many probably haven't been in the deck more than once.
It's too late for my preferred solution -- don't get tangled up in DVD crap at all. Temped as I have been, I still don't have a DVD player (despite being given two DVDs as a gift about a year ago). I might finally cave in and get a PS2 when Wipout Fusion finally makes it to Australian shores.
Product placement and crap titles aside, the real reason I won't be seeing the movie in the cinemas is that the cinemas themselves suck. How have I been screwed, let me count the ways;
Little green fire-fly like dots right through Mimic, plus an obvious cut/break/repair in the film.
Cyclic digital distortion of the sound right through Hollow Man.
Given wrong tickets and pointed to wrong theatre for Thir13en Ghosts (movie titles are no longer on cinema doors). Mistake not noticed until 15 minutes after correct movie started.
Purchased discount pack of "Cinema Cash" only to find that the expiry date had been shortened to six months and for one of those months a normal ticket was cheaper.
Projector setup incorrectly such that subtitles at the beginning of Replacement Killers were cut off so completely that the audience didn't notice there were any until one spanning two lines half-popped up.
Waiting in theatre for The Mummy Returns to start and Tomb Raider begins -- this time I was in the right theatre.
That's all I can remember for now, but I'd say a good 60% of the movies I've seen in the last year or two have been screwed up by the cinema. If only the movies were actually good enough to be worth coping with the crap.
For me the major annoyance is the lack of a Bluetooth solution for the TRGpro (Palm III style case plus CF slot). I've got the Ericsson T28 compatible Bluetooth wireless handsfree kit, and as a wireless handsfree kit it rocks, but I really want to be able to check my email from my Palm without taking my mobile out of my pocket. Does anyone know how a BT TRGpro/Handera solution is coming along? Maybe I'll be able to wirelessly check my email on a GBA before I'll be able to do it on the Palm I specifically purchased for that activity.
Actually, it's more like a dealer selling you a car that doesn't have any locks then asking you to leave it outside their dealership while they take their time getting 'round to it. Chances are everything will be fine by the time they've installed the locks, but will you ever really be sure?
I assume you weren't with me yesterday or the day before when we were discussing Internet Explorer's latest security flaw here on/. and I was debating whether or not to install a new browser. I got Mozilla running on my PC for the first time about 6 hours ago.
Anyway, it's not supposed to be insightful, I'm just expressing frustration.
Just so you all know, I downloaded IE6 (about 9MB), then I downloaded the Uber-patch (2-3MB). It took about 4 hours total including download and reboot time (2 reboots, plus a lot of system updates). And when I'd finished all that there's a note on Dshield of another stupid Java or Javascript security hole in IE. I have since downloaded Mozilla and so far so good. If I need IE for something I care about then I'll power it up, otherwise it's Mozilla unless something goes badly wrong.
Choose between downloading the free ad-supported version with all features and functionality included, or download and purchase your copy of Opera for 39 USD.
Uhh, no thanks. Choosing between ads and A$80 is not my idea of a good time, at least not until I'm working again.
Ultimately, I think I use too many services that won't work on anything but the Big 2 (I have to bypass my proxy for things like Netbank, eBay, Blogger, etc). What I really need is a way of fixing this file type attachment hole without having to download a patch. Has anyone worked out a custom filter for Proxomitron that detects malformed MIME type stuff...?
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Here in Australia, the Nick channel has never shown Zim outside of a pack of programs, thus failing to list Zim properly in the guide. For ages it was part of "Slam" (4pm-6pm Sat/Sun), now it's buried in "Twisted Telly" (10pm-11:35pm Weekdays). And they've been looping 'round the same few episodes so much I thought it had been canceled.
Anyone who's considering writing a similar letter should include a copy of the form response and ask that they receive something different/better. That could be interesting.
A broadcast TV service that doesn't let me time-shift is of no use to me.
If I can't whack something on a tape and watch it later then I'm going to go somewhere else for my entertainment. My schedule runs around my schedule, not around TV.
Anyway, I have a nice big expensive analogue TV and an expensive analogue VCR and a large collection of video games stuff that all outputs analogue video signals and a subscription to a cable service that isn't anymore interested in upgrading to digital than I am. Analogue free-to-air could disappear this very moment and I probably wouldn't notice for a month, and I'd never care enough to do anything about it. Heck, Foxtel's gotten so crappy lately that I could probably cope if it went away too.
You know, for many people, suddenly losing access to free-to-air programming would not be the end of the world. Far from it, they'd probably find they had so much tim eon their hands that they could go out and meet people or do something useful.
What do clueless managers have against plain text?
- I like to use a font called Book Antiqua that hasn't been installed by default with Office since version 95.
- Printer information, including print margins, paper size, tray number, all screw things up just enough to risk major visual changes (or annoying problems like the document printing from the letterhead tray) at the other end. It's quite easy for an increase in printable area (or a change in font, see above) to result in two free-floating boxes printing on top of each other on the first page, rather than one on the first page and one on the second.
- Word attachments can contain viruses. I'm always aware of this whenever I'm forced to send one, even though I keep my anti virus software up to date on a daily basis. I'm particularly careful when I receive one, typically only opening it in "Wordpad".
Meanwhile, my main email address runs through Spamcop which I have setup to strip any and all attachments (there's a warning in my emailI typically send out my CV as an Acrobat file. About 20% of the time I'm asked for a Word version. That's fine, I've got Word 97 installed and it's what I actually used to write the CV in the first place. I downgraded from 2000 recently and I'm much happier.
Regardless, it's amazing just how many PC users don't actually understand the concept of a compressed file. You try emailing a zipped copy of your CV to any given job placement agent (or any random zip to any "salary man") and see if you get any reply other than a request for one "in word".
I notice that section is absent from this month's magazine.
What they're more likely to lose money from is the higher-than-average percentage of /. readers that have ad-filters installed.
At one point the company was changing its name and they kept it secret from the staff until the day before so they could get a free press release in the state's only daily newspaper. If it had leaked out to some of the national dailies then the local one wouldn't have run it.
When the regular marketing twit went on holiday and up-and-coming marketing person doing unpaid work experience got vastly more press releases in the paper than her. This was the beginning of the end for the poor intern -- who was religated to secretary for the almost a year she was a paid staff member.
Thing is, if it were true no one would use it unless it was built in to Windows/Internet Explorer.
Now I'm off to play a bit more Episode 1 Racer on my N64...
Even I've received spam from this dimwit, and I'm looking for a job in the same industry. If you wouldn't waste time reading the spam, don't waste time visiting the link.
You seriously believe these people will ever have kids?
I typically keep the RF key to my car in my jeans change pocket. I can tell which button is the lock and which is the unlock through the fabric, so I don't have to take it out to use it. This is effectively wearable technology. This is also about as complex and feature-rich as wearable technology needs to get.
Those stats look bearable until you realise that it probably catches the same people as false positives every time. If implemented, it would probably make 5-10% of the travelling population's lives hell.
Of course, you could just sell your DVD collection and not replace it. I bet you haven't watched most of your titles for quite a while -- many probably haven't been in the deck more than once.
It's too late for my preferred solution -- don't get tangled up in DVD crap at all. Temped as I have been, I still don't have a DVD player (despite being given two DVDs as a gift about a year ago). I might finally cave in and get a PS2 when Wipout Fusion finally makes it to Australian shores.
- Little green fire-fly like dots right through Mimic, plus an obvious cut/break/repair in the film.
- Cyclic digital distortion of the sound right through Hollow Man.
- Given wrong tickets and pointed to wrong theatre for Thir13en Ghosts (movie titles are no longer on cinema doors). Mistake not noticed until 15 minutes after correct movie started.
- Purchased discount pack of "Cinema Cash" only to find that the expiry date had been shortened to six months and for one of those months a normal ticket was cheaper.
- Projector setup incorrectly such that subtitles at the beginning of Replacement Killers were cut off so completely that the audience didn't notice there were any until one spanning two lines half-popped up.
- Waiting in theatre for The Mummy Returns to start and Tomb Raider begins -- this time I was in the right theatre.
That's all I can remember for now, but I'd say a good 60% of the movies I've seen in the last year or two have been screwed up by the cinema. If only the movies were actually good enough to be worth coping with the crap.For me the major annoyance is the lack of a Bluetooth solution for the TRGpro (Palm III style case plus CF slot). I've got the Ericsson T28 compatible Bluetooth wireless handsfree kit, and as a wireless handsfree kit it rocks, but I really want to be able to check my email from my Palm without taking my mobile out of my pocket. Does anyone know how a BT TRGpro/Handera solution is coming along? Maybe I'll be able to wirelessly check my email on a GBA before I'll be able to do it on the Palm I specifically purchased for that activity.
Actually, it's more like a dealer selling you a car that doesn't have any locks then asking you to leave it outside their dealership while they take their time getting 'round to it. Chances are everything will be fine by the time they've installed the locks, but will you ever really be sure?
The patch should simply be on every free CD, cover CD or Multimedia music CD from now until Easter.
Anyway, it's not supposed to be insightful, I'm just expressing frustration.
ARGH! How many more MB of browsers am I going to need to download this week?
Just so you all know, I downloaded IE6 (about 9MB), then I downloaded the Uber-patch (2-3MB). It took about 4 hours total including download and reboot time (2 reboots, plus a lot of system updates). And when I'd finished all that there's a note on Dshield of another stupid Java or Javascript security hole in IE. I have since downloaded Mozilla and so far so good. If I need IE for something I care about then I'll power it up, otherwise it's Mozilla unless something goes badly wrong.
Ultimately, I think I use too many services that won't work on anything but the Big 2 (I have to bypass my proxy for things like Netbank, eBay, Blogger, etc). What I really need is a way of fixing this file type attachment hole without having to download a patch. Has anyone worked out a custom filter for Proxomitron that detects malformed MIME type stuff...?