Why is this a troll? CD-Rs were the dominant storage mechanism for, what, 10 years?.... In 50 years, imagine how a teenager will view floppy disks, CD-Rs and USB flash drives.
Thank you. For those that don't get it, it was an attempt at humorously making the point that CDs already seem dated as a storage medium. I can't believe that anyone would still consider using them as backup any more. Storing video on DVD is old-hat, now.
Maybe I offended the 'CD-R sounds better than cloud stored MP3' people. (That was another attempt at humor.)
BTW, without checking, I would guess delay lines pre-dated CRT storage (I'd forgotten about those!), then ferrite core.
Were CD-Rs the things we used before floppy disks, but after mercury delay lines, or have I got the order wrong? They were those black things with a a paper label in the middle, yes?
I haven't used any of the text-to-speech applications, but I assume a voice actor would do a much better job. That might or might not be worth $30 to you.
I frequently listen to audio books and I'm often impressed by what can only be described as the 'performance' of some readers. At first I found someone doing different voices a little strange to listen to, but it really helps follow the dialog when I can't devote my full attention to it (such as during a long drive).
And I dread to think what text-to-speech would do with, say, a science-fiction story full of malamanteau words.
Or you could get a non-proprietary like any Android phone NOT sold by the carrier directly.
At least that's how it works here in Europe; dunno if the US has caught up with the times yet - do you still have no SIM cards?
That's not the problem, public awareness is. I've seem amazed comments along the lines of Google/Apple (or whoever) have come up with the revolutionary idea of selling a handset separate from service. But you've been able to by SIM-free phones in the US for years (I got mine from Amazon). People either haven't heard of the idea, or think that it's somehow illicit, like hacking, or owning a region-free DVD player.
Similarly, there's a lot of confusion over the difference between jailbreaking and SIM-unlocking.
I think part of the problem is too many people view phones as toys first and phones second.
I once bought a Treo because I was a heavy Palm PDA user. One day it crashed and rebooted as it was receiving a call.
Now, I like gadgets, but when I replaced it a while later I decided to buy an S40-based phone. That's the old, more traditional "phone" OS than S60 or Maemo or whatever.
It's no 'smartphone' by any typical definition (although it has simple PDA functions like a calendar, stopwatch, notes etc and a camera).
But here's the thing: it *doesn't crash*. I don't mean I only have to reset it once a week or once a month or whatever. It... works.
For my cellphone, I want reliability first, and I'll get my gadget fix some other way.
No, it tells you how you learn the lesser-known language named "PHP in 24 hours" which differs from normal PHP in that the scripts always take 24 hours to run.
Well that's the Halting Problem sorted then. Faster cgi scripts - not so much.
Wasn't there something like this in one of the Hitchhikers' Guide books?
Yes I was thinking that.
I think that in one of the later HHGTTG books Arthur is shown a virtual reality movie (to get him up to speed on events) which turns out to be just an infomercial. He's warned "Do not nod your head at any point" and the infomercial presenter ends a pseudo-religious message with "now, let us bow our heads in payment".
When I read this, I thought it was a bit unlikely that they were unable to play the movie without it being interactive, but these days some people can't read their email without being online....
It's not like there's any useful information there after the 7th time you've heard it and read the info card out of boredom. Video/speech is a very slow, ineffecient way of transferring information compared to vanilla text.
Some people's minds are verbal in nature, some work more visually. Some solve a problem with algebra, some solve the same problem with geometric diagrams. Having a card, demonstration and a video is probably going to get everyone.
And the forced repetition is important for learning, too, to help you learn something you'll have to remember while panicking.
I'm in the US, but today Google shows my location as a town in Norway. Last week it said I was in Malaysia. Every so often it puts me in my actual office location. I'm guessing my corporate proxy has something to do with the confusion, since I'm not using wifi on my laptop.
Yeah, IP-based location is very poor, often choosing the wrong city. Wifi can vary from bad to good, but it's often reasonably accurate (e.g. to a few blocks).
I once had wifi location tell me that I was hundreds of miles away - I was at an exhibition, and I assume that the wifi access points were used at different exhibition and conference halls throughout the country.
Slashdot Mirror
Will it be the left or the right eye's viewpoint?
Both? Or will one be held back for a special edition "with previously unseen edge details!"?
Then it dawned on me that 101010base2 was 42base10.
IIRC (and it was a long time ago) 101010 was shown written on a cave wall in the TV version of THHGTTG.
Why is this a troll? CD-Rs were the dominant storage mechanism for, what, 10 years? .... In 50 years, imagine how a teenager will view floppy disks, CD-Rs and USB flash drives.
Thank you. For those that don't get it, it was an attempt at humorously making the point that CDs already seem dated as a storage medium. I can't believe that anyone would still consider using them as backup any more. Storing video on DVD is old-hat, now.
Maybe I offended the 'CD-R sounds better than cloud stored MP3' people. (That was another attempt at humor.)
BTW, without checking, I would guess delay lines pre-dated CRT storage (I'd forgotten about those!), then ferrite core.
Were CD-Rs the things we used before floppy disks, but after mercury delay lines, or have I got the order wrong? They were those black things with a a paper label in the middle, yes?
Just insert a small "\L" after the first letter.
The only people who want to ask this question are the people writing articles about it.
I haven't used any of the text-to-speech applications, but I assume a voice actor would do a much better job. That might or might not be worth $30 to you.
I frequently listen to audio books and I'm often impressed by what can only be described as the 'performance' of some readers. At first I found someone doing different voices a little strange to listen to, but it really helps follow the dialog when I can't devote my full attention to it (such as during a long drive).
And I dread to think what text-to-speech would do with, say, a science-fiction story full of malamanteau words.
Or you could get a non-proprietary like any Android phone NOT sold by the carrier directly.
At least that's how it works here in Europe; dunno if the US has caught up with the times yet - do you still have no SIM cards?
That's not the problem, public awareness is. I've seem amazed comments along the lines of Google/Apple (or whoever) have come up with the revolutionary idea of selling a handset separate from service. But you've been able to by SIM-free phones in the US for years (I got mine from Amazon). People either haven't heard of the idea, or think that it's somehow illicit, like hacking, or owning a region-free DVD player.
Similarly, there's a lot of confusion over the difference between jailbreaking and SIM-unlocking.
And if you are planning to stay somewhere a long time, you could always buy a local prepaid sim for much cheaper data access
Won't prepaid SIMs still usually have prohibitively expensive data rates?
Nearly 30 years on, I'm reading a "ZX Spectrum/Mac is better" argument. It brings a tear to my eye!
I even had a lightpen for my Spectrum.
That's only because you hate freedom.
I decided to use the GPL instead of a dog license, now my dog has run away.
I think part of the problem is too many people view phones as toys first and phones second.
I once bought a Treo because I was a heavy Palm PDA user. One day it crashed and rebooted as it was receiving a call.
Now, I like gadgets, but when I replaced it a while later I decided to buy an S40-based phone. That's the old, more traditional "phone" OS than S60 or Maemo or whatever.
It's no 'smartphone' by any typical definition (although it has simple PDA functions like a calendar, stopwatch, notes etc and a camera).
But here's the thing: it *doesn't crash*. I don't mean I only have to reset it once a week or once a month or whatever. It... works.
For my cellphone, I want reliability first, and I'll get my gadget fix some other way.
No, it tells you how you learn the lesser-known language named "PHP in 24 hours" which differs from normal PHP in that the scripts always take 24 hours to run.
Well that's the Halting Problem sorted then. Faster cgi scripts - not so much.
"I see FOUR BARS!"
(I had a hard time deciding whether to post this in the iPhone signal strength thread instead, but it's probably already been done.)
Surely there are designs that can meet the demands of the environment better than the human form.
Roomba?
"Ever load up a completely random webpage to see an advertisement at the top for products related to what you're reading about?
They can place an ad on a page related to what the page is about? How do they do that? They must be running a keylogger on my PC!
Wasn't there something like this in one of the Hitchhikers' Guide books?
Yes I was thinking that.
I think that in one of the later HHGTTG books Arthur is shown a virtual reality movie (to get him up to speed on events) which turns out to be just an infomercial. He's warned "Do not nod your head at any point" and the infomercial presenter ends a pseudo-religious message with "now, let us bow our heads in payment".
When I read this, I thought it was a bit unlikely that they were unable to play the movie without it being interactive, but these days some people can't read their email without being online....
It's not like there's any useful information there after the 7th time you've heard it and read the info card out of boredom. Video/speech is a very slow, ineffecient way of transferring information compared to vanilla text.
Some people's minds are verbal in nature, some work more visually. Some solve a problem with algebra, some solve the same problem with geometric diagrams. Having a card, demonstration and a video is probably going to get everyone.
And the forced repetition is important for learning, too, to help you learn something you'll have to remember while panicking.
I'm in the US, but today Google shows my location as a town in Norway. Last week it said I was in Malaysia. Every so often it puts me in my actual office location. I'm guessing my corporate proxy has something to do with the confusion, since I'm not using wifi on my laptop.
Yeah, IP-based location is very poor, often choosing the wrong city. Wifi can vary from bad to good, but it's often reasonably accurate (e.g. to a few blocks).
I once had wifi location tell me that I was hundreds of miles away - I was at an exhibition, and I assume that the wifi access points were used at different exhibition and conference halls throughout the country.
So because you tend to live near their offices, that is true for everyone else? Ah, thought so.
Maybe because he connects to Google at Starbucks stores, he thinks that they're the local Google offices.
But for my mom, for example, this would be great. With GoogleTV, she can view all the LOLcats she wants from the comfort of her living room sofa.
"In my day we had to make our own entertainment with some cardboard, a cat and a sharpie,,,"
I heard that they had setbacks due to storage problems for a while.... until they switched to RAID.
Sorry.
I'd also have to say that you don't own a cell-phone either, as most phone contracts are bigger than the phone book.
Maybe he just bought a phone, bought a SIM and never signed anything.
If Amazon is collecting notes, expect a few "Impress her with your stamina. Buy viagra at http://penisexperts.com/." notes in the near future.
Ha ha! Those people must have been really embarrassed when they realized that they'd accidentally included the word "sex" in their domain name!
Perhaps this explains the appearance of a giant pair of scissors in the sky when performing the iron pyramid experiment.
I'd forgotten about that! Maybe it also explains the giant pliers on Google Street View: