The most complete explanation I've seen to date can be found in the Jargon Lexicon entry for big-endian. It describes the derivation, and mentions the main processors which use this byte order. There are also links from that page for related terms.
When I read the story (and a handful of the posts) I was under the impression that a person could speak the name of the song or the artist. That would be cool. I would pay $600 for that device, on the condition that:
I had a car.
I had a "sufficiently large" collection of songs.
I had adequate financial resources.
However, when I actually looked at the page, I learned that the user has to spell the name of the desired artist/album/song. This seems to be a failing in the chosen voice-recognition software package. Now, I understand that current voice-recognition technology has problems with proper names. However, trying to remember the correct spelling for "Audio Andrenaline," would detract from my listening experience. Also, having to spell everything would get tedious fairly quickly. It would be nice if the computer could learn my pronunciation for the names.
Personally, I would only pay about $200 if I had to spell what I wanted. I would probably end up organizing the whole collection into playlists, and then using those playlists instead of the album/artist names. When they come out with a player that understands me when I say, "Computer, play 'The Marriage of Figaro'", then it'll be worth paying $600.
I'm planning on setting up a Linux box this summer because this will be the first time I'll have a spare computer to mess around with. What, in your opinion, is the best distribution for a first-timer to install and learn with?
Stop me if I'm wrong, I think this (the original post) was written completely tounge-in-cheek. Look at it again. If it seems rediculous and trollish, that's because it was meant to be. It was written in parody of what a naive M$ marketroid might write on this subject. From my perspective, there seems to be no other interpretation. Don't take the views seriously, because they are probably not the actual views of the author.
I personally have to say that I have a very low opinion of South Park. I think that it epitomizes the most revolting and repulsive parts of American gutter humor. I have seen enough to know that yes, it can be funny, but it is also disgusting. I think that it is easy to be funny and disgusting by catering to the lowest standard of humor. It takes a lot more time and effort to make jokes that an average teenager could tell his conservative mother without getting a mouthful of soap.
Lots of people may consider me prudish or retentive or [insert pejorative here] but I really think that good humor should be in good taste. We all know what good taste is, and we know that South Park isn't it. I maintain that good taste is highly undervalued by today's critics and audience. (No, I do not aspire to be a movie critic.)
I would rather not see articles and comments praising South Park for its humor and originality and tunefulness, and forgetting the fact that vulgar language is an ugly black mark on those who use it. I don't care if you think I'm old-fashioned, I just don't like it!
I think we're missing the point here, or at least one of them. Has anyone ever listened to their favorite record over and over again, until it started "skipping" at a particular point? I know I have, and it's darn annoying.
What's worse, whenever you encounter a skip, there's no way to fix it. You can lift the needle off of the record and put it down, but then you miss some of the music and can cause additional skips. Really, the only way to avoid this (until now) was to copy it onto a cassette before it started deteriorating. For those of us that are purists, or have older LP's that never had that chance, we were clean out of luck.
This new development is cool. A laser doesn't even need to touch the disk, and so they won't wear out from use anymore. A laser system can also be designed so that the skip-inducing irregularities developed in the LP are completely irrelevant.
Finally, a way to listen to my Limelighter's LP without that annoying skip in the same place! I anticipate that within the next five years, laser-based turntables will become standard on home audio systems. I am looking forward to it!
Slashdot Mirror
About your big-endian question...
The most complete explanation I've seen to date can be found in the Jargon Lexicon entry for big-endian. It describes the derivation, and mentions the main processors which use this byte order. There are also links from that page for related terms.
Happy surfing!--
When I read the story (and a handful of the posts) I was under the impression that a person could speak the name of the song or the artist. That would be cool. I would pay $600 for that device, on the condition that:
However, when I actually looked at the page, I learned that the user has to spell the name of the desired artist/album/song. This seems to be a failing in the chosen voice-recognition software package. Now, I understand that current voice-recognition technology has problems with proper names. However, trying to remember the correct spelling for "Audio Andrenaline," would detract from my listening experience. Also, having to spell everything would get tedious fairly quickly. It would be nice if the computer could learn my pronunciation for the names.
Personally, I would only pay about $200 if I had to spell what I wanted. I would probably end up organizing the whole collection into playlists, and then using those playlists instead of the album/artist names. When they come out with a player that understands me when I say, "Computer, play 'The Marriage of Figaro'", then it'll be worth paying $600.--
Patrick,
I'm planning on setting up a Linux box this summer because this will be the first time I'll have a spare computer to mess around with. What, in your opinion, is the best distribution for a first-timer to install and learn with?
--
Stop me if I'm wrong, I think this (the original post) was written completely tounge-in-cheek. Look at it again. If it seems rediculous and trollish, that's because it was meant to be. It was written in parody of what a naive M$ marketroid might write on this subject. From my perspective, there seems to be no other interpretation. Don't take the views seriously, because they are probably not the actual views of the author.
--
Here's the dictonary entry under, filed under with predjudice.
It took me a few tries to find it, too.
--
I personally have to say that I have a very low opinion of South Park. I think that it epitomizes the most revolting and repulsive parts of American gutter humor. I have seen enough to know that yes, it can be funny, but it is also disgusting. I think that it is easy to be funny and disgusting by catering to the lowest standard of humor. It takes a lot more time and effort to make jokes that an average teenager could tell his conservative mother without getting a mouthful of soap.
Lots of people may consider me prudish or retentive or [insert pejorative here] but I really think that good humor should be in good taste. We all know what good taste is, and we know that South Park isn't it. I maintain that good taste is highly undervalued by today's critics and audience. (No, I do not aspire to be a movie critic.)
I would rather not see articles and comments praising South Park for its humor and originality and tunefulness, and forgetting the fact that vulgar language is an ugly black mark on those who use it. I don't care if you think I'm old-fashioned, I just don't like it!
I think we're missing the point here, or at least one of them. Has anyone ever listened to their favorite record over and over again, until it started "skipping" at a particular point? I know I have, and it's darn annoying.
What's worse, whenever you encounter a skip, there's no way to fix it. You can lift the needle off of the record and put it down, but then you miss some of the music and can cause additional skips. Really, the only way to avoid this (until now) was to copy it onto a cassette before it started deteriorating. For those of us that are purists, or have older LP's that never had that chance, we were clean out of luck.
This new development is cool. A laser doesn't even need to touch the disk, and so they won't wear out from use anymore. A laser system can also be designed so that the skip-inducing irregularities developed in the LP are completely irrelevant.
Finally, a way to listen to my Limelighter's LP without that annoying skip in the same place! I anticipate that within the next five years, laser-based turntables will become standard on home audio systems. I am looking forward to it!