There are a lot of entertaining ads out there, the problem is they're only entertaining the first few times you see them, then they get boring. Then annoying. Then grating. I've seen some (supposedly) good products strangle themselves with over-exposure, and the thing is, while showing an ad more often gets you more impressionable eyeballs, it also alienates the customers you might've had, had you not bludgeoned them over the head with your thirty second spot.
The solution to this is tricky. Rather than producing a larger variety of ads, I think companies should move the bulk of their content to the internet - if people are actively looking for your information they're less likely to be annoyed by it. (Please note that I'm not talking about banner ads, here, I mean sites dedicated to providing product information in as friendly a way as possible.) There are all sorts of reasons why this won't work, namely that most people (unlike this crowd, I'm sure) don't watch TV with a laptop nearby just in case an interesting URL pops up on the screen, but it'd be a nice thing for them to consider.
For the most part, young people get cable and older people get dsl. Why? Because young people tend to have cell phones and no landlines in their homes, so factoring in the cost of maintaining a phone line that nobody'll use bumps the price way up.
Why cable companies haven't changed their marketing to reflect this, I have no idea. Behind the times, I guess.
Advertising rates are affected by the number of eyeballs watching their content. No viewers = no one to advertise to = no advertisers. The networks are very, very concerned about not driving their customers away and, while it IS true that advertisers matter, the viewers matter more.
I called T-Mobile at 611 and asked and they said that they do not provide any customer data to any government agency without a court order, and that they did no provide the NSA any customer data in relation to today's news.
It's funny. It used to be, the first half of that was the comforting part. 'Without a court order' sounded so comforting, like, 'Oh. There's a legal process here, and it's working for me. Phew.'
Now, that means nothing because the law is circumventable enough to be nonexistent. The fact that, in this case, nothing was handed over the good part, not that they won't change their minds the next time through. It's a damned shame.
Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Show me where in that there amendment it says anything about the purpose of the populace having guns being to overthrow the government if things start getting dicey. The amendment was drafted to keep us safe from foreign influence, not from the bozos in Washington.
Yes it is a constitutional right to bear arms, but that interpretation includes an assumption or two not included in the original draft.
oooh, I see. That one was the announcement of the awards, this is coverage of the actual awards. So...it's the original story with pictures of hot semi-naked women.
As far as I know, every Macintosh tower from the Blue and White G3's on has shipped with ZIF socketed processors - pop one out, pop another in. The iBook/Powerbooks don't work that way and the iMacs are one-piece units, but in the professional desktop series, they've been expandable since the late 90's.
Not saying you're wrong from a consumer perspective (most neophyte mac users just chuck the old and buy the new) but it's not the only option available.
yeah, because the one thing I want to worry about when stumbling home at 4am on a friday night, drunk as a skunk, is the accuracy of my white-boy rhythm. I mean, keys are hard enough to manipulate with a belly full o' the irish; i can't imagine how awful this'd be.
no. wait. Actually, I can - i foresee many a night spent passed out against my overly secure apartment door. A flying car'd be so much cooler.
The way it was originally envisioned, colored uniforms with black shoulders were for starship personnel and black uniforms with colored shoulders were for starbase/support personnel - that's why the crew of the Odyssey (DS9, "The Search, Part 2") were shown in the next-gen style uniforms.
...And then they all went to grey. THAT, I can't help you with.
This isn't much of a 'comparison.' The linked article is comparing two different models of laptop desk from the same company and there's a big 'sponsored by lapinator.com' link at the top of the thing.
Next on slashdot: logitech mousepad showdown! 8x8 versus 10x10! Read on for the thrilling trials!
Those shots captioned "ready room" are actually of the observation lounge, not the ready room.
the thing is, I don't want the people who are designing this game to make those kinds of mistakes - keeping the thing consistent with the Star Trek universe is what's gonna make or break this, and goofs like this are really going to irritate people.
This'd be a baaaad idea at work, but try sparks - orange syrup, carbonation, caffeine, ginseng...and malt likker. Wakes ya up and gets ya drunk, all at once. It's the definition of a pregamer.
Probably makes yer testicles shrivel up like raisins, but what the hell. S'tasty.
holy hell. I read through that tagging guide and it makes no sense at all. Putting the composer in the artist field and the artist in the album field, writing keys in both solfeggio and english notation depending on the language and who knows what else. It seems to me that the system you linked to sacrifices findability for linguistic correctness, and that's just nuts - what's the point of having a massive database of classical music if you can't find what you're looking for? In other words, if I'm looking for a piece I know to be in C minor, by their system I need to look for "C minor," "C minore" or "Do minor."
It also ignores all tags apart from the title, artist and album fields - I'm not sure how far application support stretches for other tags in many programs, but it seems to me, this situation is what the Composer field was made for.
The major place user submitted id3 databases fall flat on their faces is in the cataloging of classical music - some of the schema people use for that stuff is quite simply insane - movement names in the author fields, a lack of comprehensive composition names in the track field (ie, naming the first movement correctly and naming the second movement ii. allegro and that's IT), a total disregard for performers, no standard for capitalization, disparity of composer name formats. There's nothing even approaching a standard for such things and you end up doing it ALL by hand.
Just saying, if all you're worrying about is changing a genre field for every album you rip, will, it could be a helluva lot worse.
I actually wrote a basic guide to get through this particular minefield; it's over here on E2.
...So what you're telling me is, the one place in New York City where I'm guaranteed NOT to be aggravated by some yuppie asshole yelling into his phone at the top of his lungs is soon to be a cell-friendly environment? You're telling me that I can't avoid these people by hiding out thirty feet underground?
Flip4mac is nifty, but it's got some serious usability issues.
1. if you right-click on a.wmv file, quicktime player doesn't pull up as a valid option to open the file. 2. playback is fine, but navigating within the file is problematic - trying to skip to the middle of a file usually results in the 'counter keeps ticking, but the video and audio freezes' problem. 3. opening files can (but doesn't always) take forever, and it has nothing to do with the size of the file. 4. it's a good stopgap, but it still chokes on the occasional file - one in ten or so.
Not saying it's not an interesting project, but it's not the holy grail either. I find that VLC is, if not as dependable (flip4mac opens files that VLC routinely chokes on) at least more flexible if it manages to open the file in the first place.
Go home after work. Pull the blinds. Put on some good music, light some incense and try to center yourself. Boil some water for tea. Visualize yourself seated in a sea of calming light. Make your tea, inhale the steam and try to clear your mind.
Then drop a shot of whiskey into your mug and down it quick. Repeat. You'll be flying high and ready to cause some trouble by midnight. Bars're good for that, so head out and make some new friends.
Oh, and turn that soothing music off. That stuff's for sucks.
According to the article, Dale Sanders, head of IT at Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation, 'has posted photos on the intranet of staffers caught in awkward moments installing cables or servers, for instance. Sanders encourages others to add funny (and tasteful) captions.'
Know the easiest way to suck the fun out of a situation? Have it encouraged by management. Fun just happens. Make it a policy, and it becomes work again.
I live in New York City, where a pack of smokes would cost me about eight bucks. A pouch of Americam Spirit tobacco, which is (supposedly) about as additive-free as you can get, costs me five bucks and lasts three to four times as long.
I don't have a problem with smoking and I certainly don't have a problem with second-hand smoke; my only issue is the cost, and rolling my own cigarettes at a fourth of the cost of the prepackaged stuff makes it almost worth it (apart from the health risks - at least I don't feel like I'm getting shafted anymore - ten bucks a week versus 56 is one helluva big deal, I think.)
Slashdot Mirror
full disclosure: I work in advertising.
There are a lot of entertaining ads out there, the problem is they're only entertaining the first few times you see them, then they get boring. Then annoying. Then grating. I've seen some (supposedly) good products strangle themselves with over-exposure, and the thing is, while showing an ad more often gets you more impressionable eyeballs, it also alienates the customers you might've had, had you not bludgeoned them over the head with your thirty second spot.
The solution to this is tricky. Rather than producing a larger variety of ads, I think companies should move the bulk of their content to the internet - if people are actively looking for your information they're less likely to be annoyed by it. (Please note that I'm not talking about banner ads, here, I mean sites dedicated to providing product information in as friendly a way as possible.) There are all sorts of reasons why this won't work, namely that most people (unlike this crowd, I'm sure) don't watch TV with a laptop nearby just in case an interesting URL pops up on the screen, but it'd be a nice thing for them to consider.
Why cable companies haven't changed their marketing to reflect this, I have no idea. Behind the times, I guess.
--triv
Advertising rates are affected by the number of eyeballs watching their content. No viewers = no one to advertise to = no advertisers. The networks are very, very concerned about not driving their customers away and, while it IS true that advertisers matter, the viewers matter more.
Triv
It's funny. It used to be, the first half of that was the comforting part. 'Without a court order' sounded so comforting, like, 'Oh. There's a legal process here, and it's working for me. Phew.'
Now, that means nothing because the law is circumventable enough to be nonexistent. The fact that, in this case, nothing was handed over the good part, not that they won't change their minds the next time through. It's a damned shame.
Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Show me where in that there amendment it says anything about the purpose of the populace having guns being to overthrow the government if things start getting dicey. The amendment was drafted to keep us safe from foreign influence, not from the bozos in Washington.
Yes it is a constitutional right to bear arms, but that interpretation includes an assumption or two not included in the original draft.
If someone sold White Castle & booze in the same location....
Apparently you've never been to Brooklyn.
--Triv
oooh, I see. That one was the announcement of the awards, this is coverage of the actual awards. So...it's the original story with pictures of hot semi-naked women.
Wait. Why am I complaining, again?
Glass was a minimalist, utilizing subtle thematic variations over time. How he would tackle this, I have no idea.
As far as I know, every Macintosh tower from the Blue and White G3's on has shipped with ZIF socketed processors - pop one out, pop another in. The iBook/Powerbooks don't work that way and the iMacs are one-piece units, but in the professional desktop series, they've been expandable since the late 90's.
Not saying you're wrong from a consumer perspective (most neophyte mac users just chuck the old and buy the new) but it's not the only option available.
I said "originally" because voyager shot the idea to hell. :)
yeah, because the one thing I want to worry about when stumbling home at 4am on a friday night, drunk as a skunk, is the accuracy of my white-boy rhythm. I mean, keys are hard enough to manipulate with a belly full o' the irish; i can't imagine how awful this'd be. no. wait. Actually, I can - i foresee many a night spent passed out against my overly secure apartment door. A flying car'd be so much cooler.
The way it was originally envisioned, colored uniforms with black shoulders were for starship personnel and black uniforms with colored shoulders were for starbase/support personnel - that's why the crew of the Odyssey (DS9, "The Search, Part 2") were shown in the next-gen style uniforms.
Next on slashdot: logitech mousepad showdown! 8x8 versus 10x10! Read on for the thrilling trials!
Puhlease.
Those shots captioned "ready room" are actually of the observation lounge, not the ready room.
the thing is, I don't want the people who are designing this game to make those kinds of mistakes - keeping the thing consistent with the Star Trek universe is what's gonna make or break this, and goofs like this are really going to irritate people.
...Maims Together.
If anything, Christianity is more like Linux:
So when will it be ready for the desktop?
Will THIS do?
This'd be a baaaad idea at work, but try sparks - orange syrup, carbonation, caffeine, ginseng...and malt likker. Wakes ya up and gets ya drunk, all at once. It's the definition of a pregamer.
Probably makes yer testicles shrivel up like raisins, but what the hell. S'tasty.
Demios and Phobos are the moons of Mars (Terror and Fear, respectively)
Mythologically speaking, Deimos and Phobos are the horses that pull Mars' chariot through the sky.
holy hell. I read through that tagging guide and it makes no sense at all. Putting the composer in the artist field and the artist in the album field, writing keys in both solfeggio and english notation depending on the language and who knows what else. It seems to me that the system you linked to sacrifices findability for linguistic correctness, and that's just nuts - what's the point of having a massive database of classical music if you can't find what you're looking for? In other words, if I'm looking for a piece I know to be in C minor, by their system I need to look for "C minor," "C minore" or "Do minor."
It also ignores all tags apart from the title, artist and album fields - I'm not sure how far application support stretches for other tags in many programs, but it seems to me, this situation is what the Composer field was made for.
The major place user submitted id3 databases fall flat on their faces is in the cataloging of classical music - some of the schema people use for that stuff is quite simply insane - movement names in the author fields, a lack of comprehensive composition names in the track field (ie, naming the first movement correctly and naming the second movement ii. allegro and that's IT), a total disregard for performers, no standard for capitalization, disparity of composer name formats. There's nothing even approaching a standard for such things and you end up doing it ALL by hand.
Just saying, if all you're worrying about is changing a genre field for every album you rip, will, it could be a helluva lot worse.
I actually wrote a basic guide to get through this particular minefield; it's over here on E2.
...So what you're telling me is, the one place in New York City where I'm guaranteed NOT to be aggravated by some yuppie asshole yelling into his phone at the top of his lungs is soon to be a cell-friendly environment? You're telling me that I can't avoid these people by hiding out thirty feet underground?
Sometimes I hate technology.
Flip4mac is nifty, but it's got some serious usability issues.
.wmv file, quicktime player doesn't pull up as a valid option to open the file.
1. if you right-click on a
2. playback is fine, but navigating within the file is problematic - trying to skip to the middle of a file usually results in the 'counter keeps ticking, but the video and audio freezes' problem.
3. opening files can (but doesn't always) take forever, and it has nothing to do with the size of the file.
4. it's a good stopgap, but it still chokes on the occasional file - one in ten or so.
Not saying it's not an interesting project, but it's not the holy grail either. I find that VLC is, if not as dependable (flip4mac opens files that VLC routinely chokes on) at least more flexible if it manages to open the file in the first place.
Go home after work. Pull the blinds. Put on some good music, light some incense and try to center yourself. Boil some water for tea. Visualize yourself seated in a sea of calming light. Make your tea, inhale the steam and try to clear your mind.
Then drop a shot of whiskey into your mug and down it quick. Repeat. You'll be flying high and ready to cause some trouble by midnight. Bars're good for that, so head out and make some new friends.
Oh, and turn that soothing music off. That stuff's for sucks.
According to the article, Dale Sanders, head of IT at Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation, 'has posted photos on the intranet of staffers caught in awkward moments installing cables or servers, for instance. Sanders encourages others to add funny (and tasteful) captions.'
Know the easiest way to suck the fun out of a situation? Have it encouraged by management. Fun just happens. Make it a policy, and it becomes work again.
Or even better, roll your own.
I live in New York City, where a pack of smokes would cost me about eight bucks. A pouch of Americam Spirit tobacco, which is (supposedly) about as additive-free as you can get, costs me five bucks and lasts three to four times as long.
I don't have a problem with smoking and I certainly don't have a problem with second-hand smoke; my only issue is the cost, and rolling my own cigarettes at a fourth of the cost of the prepackaged stuff makes it almost worth it (apart from the health risks - at least I don't feel like I'm getting shafted anymore - ten bucks a week versus 56 is one helluva big deal, I think.)