Australia's ELECTED LAWMAKERS approved the extradition treaty.
They also approved a "Free" Trade Agreement which immediately gave specific trading rights to American producers - whilst, at the same time, locking Australian producers out of those same rights in perpetuity (well, at least until it's reviewed after 20 years - I wonder which way it'll go then, NOT!). And, at the same time, required Australia to near-immediately align its IP regulations with the US's (which, I'm sure most on/. would agree, are arguably the worst in the world).
Yup, we (the people) were dumb in electing these clowns. In our defence, not a one of us had even considered that our leaders would make a distinction between "core" election promises, "non-core" election promises, things they had planned but had never even hinted about, and outright lies. But our being dumb doesn't change the fact that America didn't play fair either. We're willing to try to stop being dumb; is America willing to try to start playing fair with the rest of the world?
I'm not especially concerned about what other countries allow us to do to their own citizens.
No extradition without representation?
It strikes me as a little odd that their own paradisaical existence can be so terribly flawed as to permit them to be bundled up and submitted for processing by the big bad United States. Huh, maybe problems of government aren't unique to the US? Imagine that.
Yup, you're right - the problem lies with our governments. Specifically, it lies with the fact that our governments have - either through direct collusion or (economic || military) force - kow-towed to US demands and requirements. We're prepared to start trying to do something about that; how about you guys?
BTW, it's not a Republican vs Democrat thing - both of your political parties (have exerted || will continue to exert) this kind of influence on other sovereign nations. The United States of America really needs to stop tampering with the rest of the world for their own gain. We love you, really - we respect your ideals, we like your "have a go" attitude, we admire your tenacity. What we hate is when all that combines to behave like the big dumb bully down the street - you know, the one who everybody kinda likes, but who all too often throws his weight around in a tantrum to get his own way.
Now that the bully has gotten big enough to hurt all of us combined, we'd like him to stop doing that. Please.
... but we have a pretty good communications minister in Helen Coonan.
Ha hah ha ha hah ha hah ha ha ha hah ha ha hah ha hah ha ha! Hah ha ha ha hah ha hah hah ha ha ha hah! Ha hah ha ha ha hah! Ha ha hah ha hah ha ha hah ha hah ha ha hah hah hah ha hah ha!
(stops to take breath, giggles)
Ha hah ha ha hah ha hah ha ha ha hah ha ha hah ha hah ha ha! Hah ha ha ha hah ha hah hah ha ha ha hah! Ha hah ha ha ha hah! Ha ha hah ha hah ha ha hah ha hah ha ha hah hah hah ha hah ha! Ha hah ha ha hah ha hah ha ha ha hah ha ha hah ha hah ha ha! Hah ha ha ha hah ha hah hah ha ha ha hah! Ha hah ha ha ha hah! Ha ha hah ha hah ha ha hah ha hah ha ha hah hah hah ha hah ha!
Oh fuck - you're serious, aren't you?
I might agree with you if she did one thing: took Rupert Murdoch's cock out of her mouth...
Just to comment a bit on this (and, hopefully, to gain a few of those "insightful" mods;-)
* The advancing average age of secondary teachers
Can't deny that. Interestingly enough, I know quite a few secondary teachers around my age (40) and younger. About half of them always wanted to be teachers, the other half fell into it after studying their passion - history, english, science, etc - and wondering what the hell to do with that degree. They all tell me it's surprising how many young(er) HS teachers there are; not one of them agrees with the popular view that the average age of teachers is increasing.
* The general lack of tech savvy amoungst teachers and supporting staff
Biased viewpoint. You may be surprised how little tech savvy there is amongst your average human. Frankly, even while most students can use computers, they don't understand what's going on, and are useless when faced with something as simple and common as Clippy the Retarded Paperclip continuously stealing focus.
And let me ask - how's your teaching-savvy?;-) My point being, it's easy to criticise others for lack of knowledge in your own narrow speciality...
* The ultra-low wages, high-volume classrooms.
Nothing the teachers can do about that, except complain - which is exactly when the usual "teachers are old, useless, out of date shells of humanity who get lots of holidays" smear campaigns start up. Starting to pay teachers properly, and setting a solid core teaching curriculum/strategy/pathway rather than a patchwork of "innovations" aimed at appeasing parents / employers / old people who haven't seen the inside of a school in 30 years and bemoan the fact they don't teach the "3 R's" like they used to (with chalk, slate, and the cane), might be a good start in fixing that.
* The mentality from the general public that the teachers are given an 'easy go' and should be teaching their kids how to read/write (nevermind that this should have been done BEFORE the student reaches primary school, let alone secondary school, IMHO)
And that's an education problem too - except, rather than a problem in educating the kids, it's a problem in educating the parents / general public. And, in fact, they do try to do this - but it's a fight against parent/public apathy (how many actually turn up to parent-teacher evenings, let alone turn up with an open mind, and how many less take the time to learn more about the education system beyond even that tiny amount?) and government funding/control.
And, quite aside from that, every time they do try a little bit of public education, they get smeared as I mention above...
I've got a lot of time for teachers, particularly secondary teachers. I think they're fsckin' mad, but I appreciate their attempts...
And I see the results of the education system every day at uni. While they're generally lacking in lots of areas, I can't pin anything down to being the faults of the teachers. They might be socially / emotionally / practically naïve - but isn't that a lack of social experience and/or parental problem, rather than a problem with the educational system?
I casually remarked "You have to admit, sometimes it's not the student that is the direct cause". I didn't get a chance to elaborate, all three teachers immediately assumed I'd accused THEM of being incompetent
When you've been continually attacked from all sides and blamed for every social sin and ill as much as teachers have, is it any wonder they've learned to immediately circle the wagons?
If you tell the school that your 7-year old child is a devout Roman Catholic, (s)he will be ushered to the relevant religious classroom, no matter what (s)he thinks.
Really? Where? Because that wasn't my experience 20+ years ago, and it wasn't the experience of the 20-odd school leavers I just asked (I'm sitting my uni tute group at the moment - gotta love campus-wide wireless access;-). The ones from the state schools tell me that, although they were nominally allocated to one demonination or another according to parental preference, they were pretty much free to wander between classes each week depending on who they wanted to hang with, and it was pretty much treated as an hour of pointless busy-work or schoolwork study regardless. Even the ones who went to church schools tell much the same story, except they generally got an (again, optional) extra hour of whatever denomination ran the school.
This is in Queensland; YMMV in the inferior southern states;-)
As Douglas Adams points out, it is the only thing that travels faster than light
Pratchett would disagree - monarchy also travels faster than light.
(I won't go into the whole theory here, but suffice to say the particles involved are "kingons" and "queeons", the path of which can only be blocked by "republicons"...)
These are the same guys who put root kits on audio CDs.
Uh, no they aren't...
If I get slapped by one hand, I don't turn around and shake the other...
It's still Sony, and they've still shown themselves to be untrustable - not just untrustworthy, but totally unable to be trusted - on many occasions and across almost all divisions.
Now the PS3 may be awesome, and you can rationalise your Playstation-love with your hatred of Sony's music & movie divisions any way you like - but it doesn't change the fact you're putting money in one hand while the other hand reaches around and rams a stick up your arse...
And what else should I be keeping myself informed about?... no consumer has the time and experience to know about everything
So don't try to know about everything. Just know about the organisations and businesses that piss you off, and never ever deal with them again!
Neither of the 2 big supermarket chains around here will see another cent from me. Ditto Belkin and D-Link. There is one single real estate agent in my local area who hasn't cold-called me - guess who's getting my business when it comes time to sell? I no longer give money to the Guide Dogs or the Red Cross, for the exact same reason. Advertise a program with a banner over the top of the one I'm watching? Sure-fire way to make sure I'll never watch it on that network.
And yes, even though I'm very happy with my Sony widescreen CRT, I'll never buy another Sony product. Ever.
For hardware, there are alternatives. For everything else, there's bittorrent...
I hate ads as much as the next guy, but seriously, I do not get what is with all the bitching and moaning about *GASP* having to watch ads before you view some video content.
It's the same argument as always: utility and quality of the experience of existing products is being reduced, with no benefit to the viewer / end user.
It's as simple as that.
In the past: I watched a 2 minute clip. In the future: I watch a 30 second ad + 2 minute clip (takes 25% longer to watch, not to mention takes 25% longer to download / has 25% less quality / some combination of the 2).
Net benefit to me, for the same content: -25%
Maybe I'm getting old and crotchetty, but I'm getting sick of this. I've certainly been around long enough to notice it.
Second, how is this different from TV?
It's not - except that TV is further along the downward path. Maybe I'm getting old and crotchetty, but I'm getting sick of this. I've certainly been around long enough to notice it.
A local example: 20 years ago, an hour-long TV show started within a minute of advertised time and had 3 ad breaks. Today an equivalent show will start anywhere up to 30 minutes after advertised time and contains 5~6 ad breaks, a watermark (self-promotion), popup advertising (more self-promotion), and squashed/split screen/locally remade credits (to fit in even more self-promotion).
Net benefit to me? It's hard to quantify, but it ain't +ve...
Third, as much as we would like to ignore it, maintaining a websites and producing content cost money.
Yup, it does. No argument there.
But why is that my problem?
Let's assume some hypothetical you creates a website. You want me to view it. Why shouldn't you be the one to pay for it?
I know, I know, the standard answer. The problem with that is the net value of the "resource" flows from me to you (and your advertisers). Always. It wouldn't be worthwhile to you if it didn't.
But I ask the question: why shouldn't the net benefit flow from you to me?
(Yup, it ignores the fact that I - hopefully, if you're doing it right - do gain some benefit. Still doesn't change the fact that the net benefit is on your side. Hardly seems fair that this is always the case, does it?
Doesn't matter how hard anyone argues to the contrary - ultimately, it is a zero-sum game...)
And that's all without getting into some mythical "social contract"; a contract that exists only in the wet dreams of marketers.
How 'bout this for a social contract?: marketers, stop ever-encroaching on people's time and space, and people will stop thinking of you as insatiably rapacious pustulent arseholes.
Figure this. The chief censor is normally chosen by a board consisting of the state censors, and appointed by the Governor-General. A few days before this latest announcement the Federal Attorney-General announced he was going to ignore the state's recommendation and appoint an as-yet unnamed person to the position - strongly suspected to be Donald McDonald, long-time personal friend of the Prime Minister and previously a politically-appointed chairman of the ABC.
What better way to justify this in an election year than to imply the States are weak on "terror" and require the strong and decisive leadership of John Winston Howard's government?
It's a complicated smokescreen and lever, and there's a whole lot more to the machinations, but that's the surface of it. Throw in the government's favourite attack dogs (Fred Nile & Alan Jones), and you can see it's a little more Machiavellian than the "OMFG, Mooslims are plotting terrah to kill innocent Aussies!" that it's being made out to be...
How does an android grow up, exactly? Did they put her program in a different body?
And people say I think about things too much!
I'd bet you've never actually seen Sandra Sully host "Australia's Brainiest xxxx" either, otherwise you'd be marvelling at how far robotics has advanced while you weren't looking...
(Sorry, Sandra. I don't know you, have never met you - but I read that you're actually quite intelligent, witty, and a fun and interesting person to know; facts backed up by people I know who have met you. It's not your fault that, despite being a television "personality", all that personality seems to drain away somewhere between you and the camera. I actually feel a little sorry on your behalf, knowing that despite all your training, experience, and a desire to excel at your job, it just doesn't come across on TV.
Tell you what - if ever we meet, I'll buy you a beer - or maybe a nice chardonnay or dry riesling - and we can both laugh about it...)
The logic is quite erronious: labels have been losing sales not due to competition/substitution from downloads, but from a lack of new, fresh product to sell.... Sales would drop even with zero downloading.
Actually, even that is erroneous (or, at least, not backed up by the facts).
A couple of days ago, ARIA were feeding the "OMFG! Illegal downloads are ruining the poor, struggling, defenceless record industry in Australia" line to the media, and the media were dutifully repeating it far and wide. But anyone who actually took the time to read ARIA's own press release learned a different story : the value of CD sales fell 5%, but actual sales rose by 8%! Not to mention the whole wholesale market - CDs, downloads, and god knows what else they count (ringtones?) - rose by a whopping 27%!
(Thoughtful aside: when the media in this country can't even report a fuckin' press release properly, how are you supposed to believe anything else they tell you???
But I won't turn this into a rant against the Australian media industry. I did that yesterday...;-)
If you live in Australia and haven't seen The Chaser it's one of the funniest shows that we've got
That's only because everything else is so fucking dismal. If banal immature humour is your thing, then...
Oh wait. This is Slashdot...
I look forward to the day when The Chaser team accepts a huge offer to move to 7, only to have their show cancelled because it's crap - and because our commercial networks here wouldn't recognise a popular show if it poked them in the eye, kicked them in the nuts, set their arses on fire, and sent them a set of ratings, market share, and audience appreciation figures certified by Jesus, Ghandi, and the Pope.
Not that anyone would ever get to see it in the first place - what with no EPG, shell-and-pea con-game programming, 3 extra ad breaks cut into each hour of programming, and a complete and utter fucking inability to keep within 20 minutes of a regular or published schedule. Much easier to just take a few already-contracted network "celebrities" and stick them on an ice rink or dance floor somewhere, or buy a few "reality documentaries" from UnZud and stick a local newsreader's face and voice on them...
Even better, take a few ancient programs where you bought the perpetual broadcast rights for peanuts, cut a few extra ad breaks in (don't worry about stopping the tape - nobody remembers the plot leading up to the first ad break, let alone after 5 or 6 breaks), and slap Russell fucking Gilbert (so unfunny he couldn't even get a gig on the Footy Show telling fart and poofter jokes while dressed in women's clothing), Darrell Somers (poor sidekick to a wig on a stick), or Sandra "Australia's Sexiest Android" Sully in front.
(Seriously. Ever wonder what happened to the little android girl in "Small Wonder"? She grew up and became a TV newsreader and part-time wildlife documentary & quiz show presenter in Australia.)
I've known well-travelled Brits who shake their heads in sorrow when recounting stories of the state of television in the USA. When they experience the inbred, excessively protected, and audience-contemptious state of commercial TV in Australia - and the inability of the woefully underfunded and constantly under government attack ABC to provide a viable alternative - they break down and cry...
Another thing is that you don't really want to do business when you have eight or more people within an earshot that might be willing to sell any information they hear or post it on the Internet.
Fun trick to pull if you know shorthand: Note down their whole conversation, keeping your notebook visible and occasionally looking at them in expectation of their next sentence. Even when they say "no, look, I'd better go - I've got some wierdo here writing down everything I say", jot that down too.
99 people out of 100 won't say anything directly to you.
When they've finished, smile briefly, close the pad, and tuck it away it in your pocket, patting it as you do...
It IS an effect of the copper loop. Telephones contain a hybrid coil (hybrid network), the purpose of which is to separate / mix the sent & received audio. It's a clever application of balanced networks.
Unfortunately, the copper loop is a complex impedance and varies with line construction. There are various balance network options (e.g. TN12, etc) which try to approximate a 'best match' to the line, but they're not perfect. The end result is imperfect isolation across the hybrid - i.e. some microphone sound appears in the earpiece.
Oddly enough, it was found in the early days of telephony that this was in fact desirable; it made the phone sound more 'natural'. After all, when you speak normally some sound does reach your ears via the air - an effect which is reduced when you put a phone up to your ear. So, in fact, it's a happy accident that telephony hybrids are imperfect.
Mobile phones don't have this effect (separate transmit/receive frequencies or timeslots), and the electronic hybrid in some wired phones is too good at matching the line, so some mic sound is deliberately mixed back in to the earpiece audio to create sidetone. AFAIK, the only reason why this is less effective in mobiles phones is purely a power issue - the mixed audio is reduced to an absolute bare minimum in order to shave a few microamps/milliamps off power consumption, and so extend battery life.
(That's an overly simplified explanation - but, yes, I WAS a telephony engineer...)
No - if you stumble, many will fall, but the rest will keep going on. History and common sense tells us that the West will not fall all at once; America may fall but Europe / Asia / somewhere else will stumble on for a while, with even more incentive (due to a depressed economy) to lean on the outsourcing hosts.
And, in the meantime, someone will rise to take your place. Parts of Eastern Europe, maybe - until the outsourcing hosts develop their own demand on the back of the experience and money you gave to them, and start employing you to produce their cheap knick-knacks and cookie-cutter code...
Of all the cultures in the world, OURS is the culture that split the atom.
And abused it by using it in an unashamed and unnecessary show of force, accelerating the world into 40 years of fear - and, yes, terror - of nuclear destruction.
OURS is the culture that put a man on the moon.
And used (uses!) the technology gained to build ever-more deadly weapons.
OURS is the culture that determined the root causes of illness and learned how to treat it -- not with magic, but with science.
And now holds that science like a sword of Damocles over the heads of your own citizens, as well as both your friends and your enemies, in the form of expensive medical care, rolling patents on long-expired drugs, medical aid tied to cultural imperialism, etc. Not to mention feeding its ever-increasing thirst for profit by inventing new and terrifying "illnesses" to be treated by new and ineffective "miracle" drugs (whilst ignoring many true illnesses - mental and physical - caused by your society itself).
HOWEVER, everyone living here is living within a European-derived culture. Everyone whose family has been here for more than a generation or two has fully absorbed it and is effectively native to it.
So you're basically saying "everybody who lives in my European culture lives in my European culture"? Funny - the same thing happens to Europeans living in China, India, Africa, the Middle East, etc. It's not something unique to European - or even American, great cultural melting-pot it undoubtedly once was - culture.
I understand this is a matter of pride with you, but I'm actually correct.
Pardon me if I don't find your arguments terribly persuasive...
The point is not that the quality of outsourced work is less that in-house or local work. It doesn't even matter if it is better. The point is that it is cheaper! Like it or not, we've created for ourselves a self-perpetuating system where that's all that matters.
Yeah, you can vote with your wallet. But you won't (nobody does); those that do are labelled 'cranks', or 'anti-globalisation', or whatever the current kook-epithet of the month is. And see how long you can keep it up when you've been outsourced...
We've all lain in Procrustes' bed. Where's a modern-day Theseus when you need one?
The real answer to this - and I'm surprised no-one has mentioned it yet - is that "American" automakers bear the crippling costs of pensions and healthcare.
(No, no, calm down - I'm not going to blame unions...)
I'm going to blame shortsighted governance and management. The pension and healthcare costs Detroit faces now are from plans entered into 30 years and more ago. Basically, back then they made promises to pay for things in a far-off and nebulous "future" - then, because that future was so far away, spent the money. Now the debt's being called in, they're in the shit, they're doing their damnedest to renege on those agreements, and there's every sign they're trying to offload it onto government.
As for the article - well, duh! IT and engineering types seem to have long thought of themselves as special irreplaceable snowflakes - while anyone with an ounce of sense and an eye to current events over the last 20-odd years has realised that the only thing that won't be outsourced to the lowest bidder is corporate management (who won't outsource themselves!), and the barest minimum needed of face-to-face sales / service (which have already effectively been outsourced to service companies, or to an untouchable class of minimum-wage slaves).
In other words, you're about as susceptible to changing social, economic, and corporate influences as the buggy-whip makers you like to lambast. Enjoy it while you can - because, unless you can speak Chinese or possibly an Eastern European language, you've got maybe 10~15 years left...
nothing is more depressing than leaving work in the dark at 5pm... What am I missing?
The option of having DST the other way around, in winter. Imagine that... you could then have roughly the same amount of aprés-work sunshine in winter as you do in summer!
The pro-DST crowd seem to pooh-pooh this suggestion whenever I bring it up. They say it's silly. Why is it siller than having 3~4 hours of post-5pm sunlight in summer, and none at all in winter?
Disclaimer: I live in a country where snow is pretty much restricted to mountaintops, and we get bone-smashing hailstorms on summer evenings...
In Sydney last weekend we all turned our lights out for an hour...
Except for the dramatic underlighting on the bridge - gotta make your symbolic sacrifice look good for the TV cameras, y'know - and quite a large number of office buildings.
Still, it was a nice symbolic gesture. I walk out onto my balcony that overlooks Brisbane city every night, and imagine how much could be saved on a year-round basis just by turning off all the illuminated signs on top of every second building, billboard lighting at every major intersection and along every train line, etc. Even just turning them off after 9pm would make a hell of a difference.
If it was water instead of electricity, turning them off would be mandatory by now. Or maybe not - even with level 5 water restrictions starting next week, the mobile dog-wash lobby has managed to gain exemptions from the restrictions. Our cars, houses, and gardens might look like shit, but we're allowed to have clean and shiny pets...
"The clock reflects astronomical realities of earth/sun positioning." Nope, it reflects oscillations of a cesium atom. Far more regular and periodic than, say, the time between two consecutive noons.
Then why do they adjust the cesium-based clock to match the vagaries of the earth's rotation and orbit (i.e. the distance between two consecutive noons) every few months?
(Yes, I know they don't adjust the basic SI unit. They do, however, adjust the odd minute - and, consequently, hours, weeks, months, and years.)
If we're getting paid by the hour, we want our hours to be of a consistent length.
But they are, give or take the odd leap-second mentioned above. Oh yeah, and the one time every year when a whole friggin' hour disappears, only to re-appear several months later!
But, regardless of which side of the DST argument you're on, why is it the only the pro-DST brigade who - after deliberately putting themselves out of step with observed reality - insist that everyone else is wrong and should follow them?
... but the HFCS that has replaced it in most countries...
Most countries? Nope. HFCS is virtually unheard of in most of the rest of the developed world.
In fact, from your own link : "... he was surprised to hear that fructose and HFCS had become common sweeteners in the United States. He said they were virtually unheard of in England..."
Slashdot Mirror
Yup, we (the people) were dumb in electing these clowns. In our defence, not a one of us had even considered that our leaders would make a distinction between "core" election promises, "non-core" election promises, things they had planned but had never even hinted about, and outright lies. But our being dumb doesn't change the fact that America didn't play fair either. We're willing to try to stop being dumb; is America willing to try to start playing fair with the rest of the world?
BTW, it's not a Republican vs Democrat thing - both of your political parties (have exerted || will continue to exert) this kind of influence on other sovereign nations. The United States of America really needs to stop tampering with the rest of the world for their own gain. We love you, really - we respect your ideals, we like your "have a go" attitude, we admire your tenacity. What we hate is when all that combines to behave like the big dumb bully down the street - you know, the one who everybody kinda likes, but who all too often throws his weight around in a tantrum to get his own way.
Now that the bully has gotten big enough to hurt all of us combined, we'd like him to stop doing that. Please.
(stops to take breath, giggles)
Ha hah ha ha hah ha hah ha ha ha hah ha ha hah ha hah ha ha! Hah ha ha ha hah ha hah hah ha ha ha hah! Ha hah ha ha ha hah! Ha ha hah ha hah ha ha hah ha hah ha ha hah hah hah ha hah ha! Ha hah ha ha hah ha hah ha ha ha hah ha ha hah ha hah ha ha! Hah ha ha ha hah ha hah hah ha ha ha hah! Ha hah ha ha ha hah! Ha ha hah ha hah ha ha hah ha hah ha ha hah hah hah ha hah ha!
Oh fuck - you're serious, aren't you?
I might agree with you if she did one thing: took Rupert Murdoch's cock out of her mouth...
And let me ask - how's your teaching-savvy?
And, quite aside from that, every time they do try a little bit of public education, they get smeared as I mention above...
I've got a lot of time for teachers, particularly secondary teachers. I think they're fsckin' mad, but I appreciate their attempts...
And I see the results of the education system every day at uni. While they're generally lacking in lots of areas, I can't pin anything down to being the faults of the teachers. They might be socially / emotionally / practically naïve - but isn't that a lack of social experience and/or parental problem, rather than a problem with the educational system?When you've been continually attacked from all sides and blamed for every social sin and ill as much as teachers have, is it any wonder they've learned to immediately circle the wagons?
This is in Queensland; YMMV in the inferior southern states
(I won't go into the whole theory here, but suffice to say the particles involved are "kingons" and "queeons", the path of which can only be blocked by "republicons"...)
It's still Sony, and they've still shown themselves to be untrustable - not just untrustworthy, but totally unable to be trusted - on many occasions and across almost all divisions.
Now the PS3 may be awesome, and you can rationalise your Playstation-love with your hatred of Sony's music & movie divisions any way you like - but it doesn't change the fact you're putting money in one hand while the other hand reaches around and rams a stick up your arse...
Neither of the 2 big supermarket chains around here will see another cent from me. Ditto Belkin and D-Link. There is one single real estate agent in my local area who hasn't cold-called me - guess who's getting my business when it comes time to sell? I no longer give money to the Guide Dogs or the Red Cross, for the exact same reason. Advertise a program with a banner over the top of the one I'm watching? Sure-fire way to make sure I'll never watch it on that network.
And yes, even though I'm very happy with my Sony widescreen CRT, I'll never buy another Sony product. Ever.
For hardware, there are alternatives. For everything else, there's bittorrent...
Seriously. Providers need you - for profit, for exposure, or for ego - far more than you need them.
(From the page leading to that last link : "The black bars are also in the original book."!)
It's as simple as that.
In the past: I watched a 2 minute clip.
In the future: I watch a 30 second ad + 2 minute clip (takes 25% longer to watch, not to mention takes 25% longer to download / has 25% less quality / some combination of the 2).
Net benefit to me, for the same content: -25%
Maybe I'm getting old and crotchetty, but I'm getting sick of this. I've certainly been around long enough to notice it.It's not - except that TV is further along the downward path. Maybe I'm getting old and crotchetty, but I'm getting sick of this. I've certainly been around long enough to notice it.
A local example: 20 years ago, an hour-long TV show started within a minute of advertised time and had 3 ad breaks. Today an equivalent show will start anywhere up to 30 minutes after advertised time and contains 5~6 ad breaks, a watermark (self-promotion), popup advertising (more self-promotion), and squashed/split screen/locally remade credits (to fit in even more self-promotion).
Net benefit to me? It's hard to quantify, but it ain't +ve...Yup, it does. No argument there.
But why is that my problem?
Let's assume some hypothetical you creates a website. You want me to view it. Why shouldn't you be the one to pay for it?
I know, I know, the standard answer. The problem with that is the net value of the "resource" flows from me to you (and your advertisers). Always. It wouldn't be worthwhile to you if it didn't.
But I ask the question: why shouldn't the net benefit flow from you to me?
(Yup, it ignores the fact that I - hopefully, if you're doing it right - do gain some benefit. Still doesn't change the fact that the net benefit is on your side. Hardly seems fair that this is always the case, does it?
Doesn't matter how hard anyone argues to the contrary - ultimately, it is a zero-sum game...)
And that's all without getting into some mythical "social contract"; a contract that exists only in the wet dreams of marketers.
How 'bout this for a social contract?: marketers, stop ever-encroaching on people's time and space, and people will stop thinking of you as insatiably rapacious pustulent arseholes.
... it's about politics.
Figure this. The chief censor is normally chosen by a board consisting of the state censors, and appointed by the Governor-General. A few days before this latest announcement the Federal Attorney-General announced he was going to ignore the state's recommendation and appoint an as-yet unnamed person to the position - strongly suspected to be Donald McDonald, long-time personal friend of the Prime Minister and previously a politically-appointed chairman of the ABC.
What better way to justify this in an election year than to imply the States are weak on "terror" and require the strong and decisive leadership of John Winston Howard's government?
It's a complicated smokescreen and lever, and there's a whole lot more to the machinations, but that's the surface of it. Throw in the government's favourite attack dogs (Fred Nile & Alan Jones), and you can see it's a little more Machiavellian than the "OMFG, Mooslims are plotting terrah to kill innocent Aussies!" that it's being made out to be...
I'd bet you've never actually seen Sandra Sully host "Australia's Brainiest xxxx" either, otherwise you'd be marvelling at how far robotics has advanced while you weren't looking...
(Sorry, Sandra. I don't know you, have never met you - but I read that you're actually quite intelligent, witty, and a fun and interesting person to know; facts backed up by people I know who have met you. It's not your fault that, despite being a television "personality", all that personality seems to drain away somewhere between you and the camera. I actually feel a little sorry on your behalf, knowing that despite all your training, experience, and a desire to excel at your job, it just doesn't come across on TV.
Tell you what - if ever we meet, I'll buy you a beer - or maybe a nice chardonnay or dry riesling - and we can both laugh about it...)
A couple of days ago, ARIA were feeding the "OMFG! Illegal downloads are ruining the poor, struggling, defenceless record industry in Australia" line to the media, and the media were dutifully repeating it far and wide. But anyone who actually took the time to read ARIA's own press release learned a different story : the value of CD sales fell 5%, but actual sales rose by 8%! Not to mention the whole wholesale market - CDs, downloads, and god knows what else they count (ringtones?) - rose by a whopping 27%!
(Thoughtful aside: when the media in this country can't even report a fuckin' press release properly, how are you supposed to believe anything else they tell you???
But I won't turn this into a rant against the Australian media industry. I did that yesterday...
Oh wait. This is Slashdot...
I look forward to the day when The Chaser team accepts a huge offer to move to 7, only to have their show cancelled because it's crap - and because our commercial networks here wouldn't recognise a popular show if it poked them in the eye, kicked them in the nuts, set their arses on fire, and sent them a set of ratings, market share, and audience appreciation figures certified by Jesus, Ghandi, and the Pope.
Not that anyone would ever get to see it in the first place - what with no EPG, shell-and-pea con-game programming, 3 extra ad breaks cut into each hour of programming, and a complete and utter fucking inability to keep within 20 minutes of a regular or published schedule. Much easier to just take a few already-contracted network "celebrities" and stick them on an ice rink or dance floor somewhere, or buy a few "reality documentaries" from UnZud and stick a local newsreader's face and voice on them...
Even better, take a few ancient programs where you bought the perpetual broadcast rights for peanuts, cut a few extra ad breaks in (don't worry about stopping the tape - nobody remembers the plot leading up to the first ad break, let alone after 5 or 6 breaks), and slap Russell fucking Gilbert (so unfunny he couldn't even get a gig on the Footy Show telling fart and poofter jokes while dressed in women's clothing), Darrell Somers (poor sidekick to a wig on a stick), or Sandra "Australia's Sexiest Android" Sully in front.
(Seriously. Ever wonder what happened to the little android girl in "Small Wonder"? She grew up and became a TV newsreader and part-time wildlife documentary & quiz show presenter in Australia.)
I've known well-travelled Brits who shake their heads in sorrow when recounting stories of the state of television in the USA. When they experience the inbred, excessively protected, and audience-contemptious state of commercial TV in Australia - and the inability of the woefully underfunded and constantly under government attack ABC to provide a viable alternative - they break down and cry...
99 people out of 100 won't say anything directly to you.
When they've finished, smile briefly, close the pad, and tuck it away it in your pocket, patting it as you do...
It IS an effect of the copper loop. Telephones contain a hybrid coil (hybrid network), the purpose of which is to separate / mix the sent & received audio. It's a clever application of balanced networks.
Unfortunately, the copper loop is a complex impedance and varies with line construction. There are various balance network options (e.g. TN12, etc) which try to approximate a 'best match' to the line, but they're not perfect. The end result is imperfect isolation across the hybrid - i.e. some microphone sound appears in the earpiece.
Oddly enough, it was found in the early days of telephony that this was in fact desirable; it made the phone sound more 'natural'. After all, when you speak normally some sound does reach your ears via the air - an effect which is reduced when you put a phone up to your ear. So, in fact, it's a happy accident that telephony hybrids are imperfect.
Mobile phones don't have this effect (separate transmit/receive frequencies or timeslots), and the electronic hybrid in some wired phones is too good at matching the line, so some mic sound is deliberately mixed back in to the earpiece audio to create sidetone. AFAIK, the only reason why this is less effective in mobiles phones is purely a power issue - the mixed audio is reduced to an absolute bare minimum in order to shave a few microamps/milliamps off power consumption, and so extend battery life.
(That's an overly simplified explanation - but, yes, I WAS a telephony engineer...)
And, in the meantime, someone will rise to take your place. Parts of Eastern Europe, maybe - until the outsourcing hosts develop their own demand on the back of the experience and money you gave to them, and start employing you to produce their cheap knick-knacks and cookie-cutter code...
He's not missing the point - you are.
The point is not that the quality of outsourced work is less that in-house or local work. It doesn't even matter if it is better. The point is that it is cheaper ! Like it or not, we've created for ourselves a self-perpetuating system where that's all that matters.
Yeah, you can vote with your wallet. But you won't (nobody does); those that do are labelled 'cranks', or 'anti-globalisation', or whatever the current kook-epithet of the month is. And see how long you can keep it up when you've been outsourced...
We've all lain in Procrustes' bed. Where's a modern-day Theseus when you need one?
The real answer to this - and I'm surprised no-one has mentioned it yet - is that "American" automakers bear the crippling costs of pensions and healthcare.
(No, no, calm down - I'm not going to blame unions...)
I'm going to blame shortsighted governance and management. The pension and healthcare costs Detroit faces now are from plans entered into 30 years and more ago. Basically, back then they made promises to pay for things in a far-off and nebulous "future" - then, because that future was so far away, spent the money. Now the debt's being called in, they're in the shit, they're doing their damnedest to renege on those agreements, and there's every sign they're trying to offload it onto government.
As for the article - well, duh! IT and engineering types seem to have long thought of themselves as special irreplaceable snowflakes - while anyone with an ounce of sense and an eye to current events over the last 20-odd years has realised that the only thing that won't be outsourced to the lowest bidder is corporate management (who won't outsource themselves!), and the barest minimum needed of face-to-face sales / service (which have already effectively been outsourced to service companies, or to an untouchable class of minimum-wage slaves).
In other words, you're about as susceptible to changing social, economic, and corporate influences as the buggy-whip makers you like to lambast. Enjoy it while you can - because, unless you can speak Chinese or possibly an Eastern European language, you've got maybe 10~15 years left...
The pro-DST crowd seem to pooh-pooh this suggestion whenever I bring it up. They say it's silly. Why is it siller than having 3~4 hours of post-5pm sunlight in summer, and none at all in winter?
Disclaimer: I live in a country where snow is pretty much restricted to mountaintops, and we get bone-smashing hailstorms on summer evenings...
Still, it was a nice symbolic gesture. I walk out onto my balcony that overlooks Brisbane city every night, and imagine how much could be saved on a year-round basis just by turning off all the illuminated signs on top of every second building, billboard lighting at every major intersection and along every train line, etc. Even just turning them off after 9pm would make a hell of a difference.
If it was water instead of electricity, turning them off would be mandatory by now. Or maybe not - even with level 5 water restrictions starting next week, the mobile dog-wash lobby has managed to gain exemptions from the restrictions. Our cars, houses, and gardens might look like shit, but we're allowed to have clean and shiny pets...
(Yes, I know they don't adjust the basic SI unit. They do, however, adjust the odd minute - and, consequently, hours, weeks, months, and years.)But they are, give or take the odd leap-second mentioned above. Oh yeah, and the one time every year when a whole friggin' hour disappears, only to re-appear several months later!
But, regardless of which side of the DST argument you're on, why is it the only the pro-DST brigade who - after deliberately putting themselves out of step with observed reality - insist that everyone else is wrong and should follow them?
In fact, from your own link : "... he was surprised to hear that fructose and HFCS had become common sweeteners in the United States. He said they were virtually unheard of in England