I'll add a possible fix:
* Allow PVR users to vote on commercials
This could possibly measure 4 things:
The people that liked the commercial
The people that didn't like the commercial
The people that cared enough to vote (1+2)
The people that didn't care enough to vote (if you know how many people watched a show)
People that buy Tivo are serious TV watchers and usually gadget heads - they have proven that they are willing to buy things ($500 worth, plus cable/satilite). Seems like it would be a good demographic to measure.
The third and fourth measurements are important as well - as others have said, an advertisement is 90% successful if you just remember the product. If you enjoyed the commercial but couldn't remember the product, you've lost. Thus, I would think an ad that gets 1000 thumbs up and 9000 thumbs down might be more effective than an add that gets 900 thumbs up and 100 thumbs down. Even if you have no intention of buying the tech now, do you have a good idea what X10 could be used for?
It may mean giving up a little privacy (such as letting Tivo and it's advertising customers know what shows you watch), but there are benefits. If advertisers could subsidize Tivo so that the boxes cost $100 and the channel guide was free, then I'd have to consider buying Tivo for family for Christmas...
Plus, I'd love it when a cat commercial comes on to know what the cool song is...
Ctrl+T - New tab with focus in location entry box
Ctrl+W - Close Tab
I use these two daily, but it does piss me off that Ctrl+W is so close to Ctrl+Q, which closes the browser. There's little that annoys me more than opening a dozen tabbed pages, then losing them all with a finger slip...
The Viper (a relatively new steel coaster) at Six Flags Great Adventure is horrible in terms of comfort. The ride isn't that exciting and thanks to the design of the shoulder restraints most of the ride experience is liken to being repeatedly punched in the ear.
Yeah, when it came to naming it, it was a dead heat between "The Viper" and "Punches to the Ear!" I think Six Flags chose wisely.
There is also a professional rule among barristers, known as the 'cab-rank rule', which is intended to prevent them taking on only those cases which they think they will win. The rule says, in effect, that provided a barrister has sufficient time and the necessary expertise, he or she will take on any case which is offered; like a taxi-cab at a rank.
Chief Justice Phillips: The Cab Rank Rule shortly stated, is that it's the advocate's duty to act for and to do the very best for a client regardless of any personal feelings, and it really has its origins in the conduct and writings of a very famous 18th Century advocate in England, Thomas Erskine. Erskine was briefed to defend the famous pamphleteer Thomas Paine who was charged with sedition because he'd written some very rude things about the King.
Erskine thoroughly disapproved of Paine and his writings but he was determined to represent him because he thought it was his duty to do so. In fact the King put a lot of pressure on Erskine to return the brief, and he refused, and the King punished him because he removed from him a very valuable office that he held of Attorney-General to the Prince of Wales.
And I think, although other people had been acting in a similar way up to that time, it was Erskine's eminence - he was the most brilliant English advocate of the 18th Century - which brought about the universal acceptance of this ethical duty.
It wasn't easy to find this info - most web sites that use the term are for lawyers, and assume that they learned the term at some point in law school. At this point, I will resist the temptation to say that any lawyer would define the term for you, for a small hourly fee.
I don't have great job-seeking advice, except for the old maxim - tell everyone that you are looking for a job. I do mean everyone - relatives, friends, the college's job placement department, the mailman, the guy across from you when you are refilling your car. My mom found my first two jobs (she didn't want me hanging around the house all summer), and my wife found me my current job. The only job that I found for myself I didn't like that much, and didn't go back after the summer.
With that out of the way, what about non-profits? Most of these need general computer assistance, but don't really know what to ask for. Someone with basic tech knowledge could make a real difference.
In fact, if you like open source software, you could help the revolution along:
Get a general tech job at a non-profit, hopefully one working with disadvantaged people with low educational skills
Help convert old computers to Linux systems so that they can still be used to some capacity.
Start modifying interfaces for the needs of co-workers and the people they help. Make a real-world usability lab that works!
Become famous as the guy who put Linux on the desktop ("He made it so that even high-school dropouts could use it!")
Spend the rest of your life sipping champagne and eating caviar with Linus.
Now, isn't that more exciting than working with Cisco routers all day, Mr. CCIE?
Slashdot is not the place to talk philosophy. That should be abundantly clear to anyone who has tried. But anyway...
Nietzsche's ideas, mostly in the form of sound bites, were used to support the Nazi cause. However, so were some Christian ideas. However, Christian ideas can also be used to oppose the actions of the Nazis. I'm still struggling with the problem that Nietzsche can't be used to argue against Nazism, as far as I can tell. I would be thrilled if you could find some passage for me that could be used against Nazi ideals.
I have a similar problem with Heidigger - I find many of his ideals logically consistant, but I can't get past the point that he became the philosopher for the Nazi movement, and that he never seemed to find a way to argue that one form of becoming was better than another.
There are plenty of things you cannot do with product placement. Especially if you have something set in the past or future.
I seem to remember Taco Bell had no problems with product placement in the sci-fi, futuristic movie Demolition Man.
Product placement in the far past would be more difficult. But there may be ways - have an elderly person in a period peice complain about arthritis, and wish there was some "magic cream" that could be applied to take away the aches and pains, then make the first commercial after that scene one for aspercreme. Or, the "proto-scientist" that appears in many far-past shows could invent a delicious carbonated beverage - your choice whether he calls it "pepsi" or "budweiser".
Re:Society Only Appreciates Scientists In Movies
on
Enigma
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
One of the reasons that the British government was quiet about Turing's role was that they wanted to keep it a secret that the Enigma machines had been compromised. According to a book on the subject (The Codebreakers, Kahn, 1996, ISBN 0-684-83130-9):
The great story of the solution of the Enigma machine... remained a tightly held secret for almost 30 years.... The British government insisted upon this because it had given the thousands of Enigma machines that it had gathered up after the end of the war to its former colonies as they gained independence and needed secure systems of communication.
Is this a nobler excuse than the "we don't want to bother helping a homo" excuse? Not really, but it might put a different perspective on Turing's tragic life.
He managed to squeeze a reference to 9-11 in a freakin cartoon review. I love it. I had no idea the world was as deep and mysterious until Mr. Katz started writing. I think I will go buy his book on dogs to see if I am missing something there too.
The book is A Dog Year, about his experiences with 4 dogs. My wife is currently reading it, and I haven't asked her much about it, but every once in a while she laughs a lot, and every once in a while she gets very angry.
My wife volunteers for the SPCA, and we're both really pro-adoption and pro-mutt. Katz isn't - he likes breeds (and believes that a dog's personality is mostly determined by breed), and he likes puppies, and he thinks rescuing dogs is a fad (and possibly a bad idea, because of the dog's emotional baggage). He also believes in putting a dog down when it has a major health complication (he puts down one lab for heart problems, the other for cancer). These differences in opinion are the source of much of the anger.
His style seems to be the "personal journalism" that we all love - relating all the experiences without much censorship. For instance, he says that he bought a puppy from the mall, then admits that it is a lousy idea to do so (the dog dies young). He admits how frustrating dogs can be, and how tempting it is to hit them when they are being frustrating. He also admits throwing a ball into a flooding river, causing his dog to go in after it and get washed down the river. He jumps in to save the dog, then gets trapped himself, and his other dog has to save the two of them.
Again, I can't recommend it, because I haven't read it. My wife thinks she may be able to recommend it, but not to SPCA types. If you want a book for SPCA types, an excellent one is Lost and Found. The author, Elizabeth Hess, is also a journalist, and spends some time in an animal shelter. It hits all the interesting points, from euthenasia to puppy mills to the truth behind those AKC papers. I strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoys pets, especially if you are thinking of getting a new one.
10 years is a LONG time in this industry. < snip >
The San Francisco Chronicle may be running a regular comic strip about a the adventures of a cute and politically liberal penguin by then!
David Packard illustrated, imho, The HP Way.
By tastefully posting a brief of his position and doing so without mud-slinging. Props to Junior.
He also spent millions on full page ads denouncing the deal, insinuated that the two CEOs were pursuing a merger for huge bonuses, and sued to stop the merger. It's hard to claim he's a graceful loser when he used every tactic he had to win (including what some would call mud-slinging).
Now, take a dating sim like Sakura Taisen [sakurataisen.com]. Not only do you have to choose the right response to the question "Does this dress make me look fat?", but your facial response can have other effects.
I just had visions of a dark future where geeks learn how to date from computers... and they get good at it!
What monstrosities will result from the union of geeks and cheerleaders?
You:My mom was an RPG programmer in the 80's on 390's and PICK OS...
Me:HA! I'll see your RPG-programming mom and raise you an RPG programming mother-in-law - but she's still working at it today!
You: HA! I see your trend-setting mother-in-law and I raise you logging into PICK (on said mothers PC at home) to run fdisk to change the boot partition to DOS to play Jeopardy with the chick who babysat across the street!
Me:
I fold. I worked on an Encore/Gould MPX system last year, FORTRAN code heavily commented in the original French, but I want to save that for a future game.
Random Slashdot Newbie:
Did that whole exchange have to be posted with a +1 bonus?
Child Porn - illegal to make, illegal to own, illegal to sell, illegal to send over U.S. Mail, etc., etc.
Video Games - In a few cities minors can't buy/rent some games (violent and/or sexual) - but their parents probably could buy/rent it for them (just like a parent can get a kid into a rated R movie).
Minors have very few rights, and their "freedoms" get trampled on every day. The video game issue seems so very low on the list, especially when some issues (like random drug tests, random searches, etc.) seem like much more important battles to me.
I have little problem telling a 16-year-old that he will have to wait two years to buy GTA. Now, if they start telling 25-year-olds that they can't buy GTA3, then that may be a problem - but stick to the actual case at hand.
But, instead of modeling Nuclear detonations, I
think the interests of warfare could also be served by setting up an ASCI White as a massive
international UT server, and let national conflicts be settled by a nice game of capture
the flag.
Yeah, except everyone knows the U.S. is a big sniper whore...
I don't mind spawning in a game - as long as it's thematic. For instance, Half-Life had some interesting spawns, but the theme allowed for it - when they spawned, you could see a flash of light, you heard a sound, etc. I didn't see any indication that the enemies in SS2 "teleported" to just around the corner - instead, they just appeared, as if they had followed me ten paces back.
I would have been happier if there were specific spawn points, like the level exits. Then they could have made one of the technical skills to jam a door such that the spawned enemies had a hard time using it, or that you would have heard some sort of sound when they broke your barrier.
Still, I'm intrigued - I'll get some good headphones and try SS2 again, maybe starting at the easy level.
I have to admit, I couldn't get into System Shock. Maybe I had played Half Life / CounterStrike for too long, but I could never get the hang of it.
For one, the advancement system didn't make much sense. Cybernetic implants needed to fire a gun? Gun breaking down after firing a few rounds? This was quite frustrating, and took away from the gameplay for me.
I didn't like the randomly spawned enemies, either. Maybe I'm too used to the Doom/Quake paradign of clearing out a room then moving to the next one. It was quite annoying to clear a room, move to the next one, then turn around a see an enemy coming at you. It completely ruined my suspension of disbelief - where was that zombie supposed to come from?
Again, maybe I missed something - maybe I needed to play Thief, SS1, Deus Ex, etc. to get into the "sneaking around" paradigm. I still have my copy of System Shock 2 - any advice on how to enjoy it? Can it be enjoyed on a laptop? Should I play SS1 first?
Now that I'm teaching, I'm thinking of trying that. I can't decide if I really want to exclude religion and politics, though. I wonder if they excluded those topics to avoid offending people, or because they thought those topics are too subjective/personal, or if it was for some other reason?
Because you aren't giving answers when you talk about religion and politics, only your opinions. This encourages students to voice their own opinions, and soon the Q&A period is dominated by everyone feeling they have to say what their opinion is on the subject. In other words, it turns into talk radio.
Plus, just about the worst thing that could happen before the final exam is for a student to think that you are prejudiced against them because of your differing ideas on religion or politics - do you want to spend your summer vacation with lawyers and the dean's board?
Slashdot Mirror
Did I really say cat commericial? Of course, I meant car commercials, one of the few sources for cool music these days...
Quick, Lappy, go email for help!
* Allow PVR users to vote on commercials
This could possibly measure 4 things:
- The people that liked the commercial
- The people that didn't like the commercial
- The people that cared enough to vote (1+2)
- The people that didn't care enough to vote (if you know how many people watched a show)
People that buy Tivo are serious TV watchers and usually gadget heads - they have proven that they are willing to buy things ($500 worth, plus cable/satilite). Seems like it would be a good demographic to measure.The third and fourth measurements are important as well - as others have said, an advertisement is 90% successful if you just remember the product. If you enjoyed the commercial but couldn't remember the product, you've lost. Thus, I would think an ad that gets 1000 thumbs up and 9000 thumbs down might be more effective than an add that gets 900 thumbs up and 100 thumbs down. Even if you have no intention of buying the tech now, do you have a good idea what X10 could be used for?
It may mean giving up a little privacy (such as letting Tivo and it's advertising customers know what shows you watch), but there are benefits. If advertisers could subsidize Tivo so that the boxes cost $100 and the channel guide was free, then I'd have to consider buying Tivo for family for Christmas...
Plus, I'd love it when a cat commercial comes on to know what the cool song is...
I use these two daily, but it does piss me off that Ctrl+W is so close to Ctrl+Q, which closes the browser. There's little that annoys me more than opening a dozen tabbed pages, then losing them all with a finger slip...
Yeah, when it came to naming it, it was a dead heat between "The Viper" and "Punches to the Ear!" I think Six Flags chose wisely.
With that out of the way, what about non-profits? Most of these need general computer assistance, but don't really know what to ask for. Someone with basic tech knowledge could make a real difference.
In fact, if you like open source software, you could help the revolution along:
- Get a general tech job at a non-profit, hopefully one working with disadvantaged people with low educational skills
- Help convert old computers to Linux systems so that they can still be used to some capacity.
- Start modifying interfaces for the needs of co-workers and the people they help. Make a real-world usability lab that works!
- Become famous as the guy who put Linux on the desktop ("He made it so that even high-school dropouts could use it!")
- Spend the rest of your life sipping champagne and eating caviar with Linus.
Now, isn't that more exciting than working with Cisco routers all day, Mr. CCIE?Nietzsche's ideas, mostly in the form of sound bites, were used to support the Nazi cause. However, so were some Christian ideas. However, Christian ideas can also be used to oppose the actions of the Nazis. I'm still struggling with the problem that Nietzsche can't be used to argue against Nazism, as far as I can tell. I would be thrilled if you could find some passage for me that could be used against Nazi ideals.
I have a similar problem with Heidigger - I find many of his ideals logically consistant, but I can't get past the point that he became the philosopher for the Nazi movement, and that he never seemed to find a way to argue that one form of becoming was better than another.
I seem to remember Taco Bell had no problems with product placement in the sci-fi, futuristic movie Demolition Man.
Product placement in the far past would be more difficult. But there may be ways - have an elderly person in a period peice complain about arthritis, and wish there was some "magic cream" that could be applied to take away the aches and pains, then make the first commercial after that scene one for aspercreme. Or, the "proto-scientist" that appears in many far-past shows could invent a delicious carbonated beverage - your choice whether he calls it "pepsi" or "budweiser".
Is this a nobler excuse than the "we don't want to bother helping a homo" excuse? Not really, but it might put a different perspective on Turing's tragic life.
The book is A Dog Year, about his experiences with 4 dogs. My wife is currently reading it, and I haven't asked her much about it, but every once in a while she laughs a lot, and every once in a while she gets very angry.
My wife volunteers for the SPCA, and we're both really pro-adoption and pro-mutt. Katz isn't - he likes breeds (and believes that a dog's personality is mostly determined by breed), and he likes puppies, and he thinks rescuing dogs is a fad (and possibly a bad idea, because of the dog's emotional baggage). He also believes in putting a dog down when it has a major health complication (he puts down one lab for heart problems, the other for cancer). These differences in opinion are the source of much of the anger.
His style seems to be the "personal journalism" that we all love - relating all the experiences without much censorship. For instance, he says that he bought a puppy from the mall, then admits that it is a lousy idea to do so (the dog dies young). He admits how frustrating dogs can be, and how tempting it is to hit them when they are being frustrating. He also admits throwing a ball into a flooding river, causing his dog to go in after it and get washed down the river. He jumps in to save the dog, then gets trapped himself, and his other dog has to save the two of them.
Again, I can't recommend it, because I haven't read it. My wife thinks she may be able to recommend it, but not to SPCA types. If you want a book for SPCA types, an excellent one is Lost and Found. The author, Elizabeth Hess, is also a journalist, and spends some time in an animal shelter. It hits all the interesting points, from euthenasia to puppy mills to the truth behind those AKC papers. I strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoys pets, especially if you are thinking of getting a new one.
Looks like I'm 0 for 2 today on subtlities - anyone have a cluestick?
Ah - you are right. Where is that "remove comment" feature when you need it?
< snip >
The San Francisco Chronicle may be running a regular comic strip about a the adventures of a cute and politically liberal penguin by then!
Don't tell Danese Cooper, but they already do.
Salon also runs the strip; here is one of my recent favorites.
He also spent millions on full page ads denouncing the deal, insinuated that the two CEOs were pursuing a merger for huge bonuses, and sued to stop the merger. It's hard to claim he's a graceful loser when he used every tactic he had to win (including what some would call mud-slinging).
I just had visions of a dark future where geeks learn how to date from computers... and they get good at it!
What monstrosities will result from the union of geeks and cheerleaders?
Me: HA! I'll see your RPG-programming mom and raise you an RPG programming mother-in-law - but she's still working at it today!
You: HA! I see your trend-setting mother-in-law and I raise you logging into PICK (on said mothers PC at home) to run fdisk to change the boot partition to DOS to play Jeopardy with the chick who babysat across the street!
Me: I fold. I worked on an Encore/Gould MPX system last year, FORTRAN code heavily commented in the original French, but I want to save that for a future game.
Random Slashdot Newbie: Did that whole exchange have to be posted with a +1 bonus?
HA! I'll see your RPG-programming mom and raise you an RPG programming mother-in-law - but she's still working at it today!
I saw her textbook on a bookshelf and immediately thought Role Playing Games...
I agree, if the space elevator is only 1 atom thick, I'm not riding!
Child Porn - illegal to make, illegal to own, illegal to sell, illegal to send over U.S. Mail, etc., etc.
Video Games - In a few cities minors can't buy/rent some games (violent and/or sexual) - but their parents probably could buy/rent it for them (just like a parent can get a kid into a rated R movie).
Minors have very few rights, and their "freedoms" get trampled on every day. The video game issue seems so very low on the list, especially when some issues (like random drug tests, random searches, etc.) seem like much more important battles to me.
I have little problem telling a 16-year-old that he will have to wait two years to buy GTA. Now, if they start telling 25-year-olds that they can't buy GTA3, then that may be a problem - but stick to the actual case at hand.
We could go from the jarring "shokto-HE-Ha-HE-ha" to "Baby, he-haaaaaaa, he-haaaaaaaooo!"
(Pardon my complete lack of knowledge of the original Japanese lyrics, or how to represent them).
Yeah, except everyone knows the U.S. is a big sniper whore...
I don't mind spawning in a game - as long as it's thematic. For instance, Half-Life had some interesting spawns, but the theme allowed for it - when they spawned, you could see a flash of light, you heard a sound, etc. I didn't see any indication that the enemies in SS2 "teleported" to just around the corner - instead, they just appeared, as if they had followed me ten paces back.
I would have been happier if there were specific spawn points, like the level exits. Then they could have made one of the technical skills to jam a door such that the spawned enemies had a hard time using it, or that you would have heard some sort of sound when they broke your barrier.
Still, I'm intrigued - I'll get some good headphones and try SS2 again, maybe starting at the easy level.
For one, the advancement system didn't make much sense. Cybernetic implants needed to fire a gun? Gun breaking down after firing a few rounds? This was quite frustrating, and took away from the gameplay for me.
I didn't like the randomly spawned enemies, either. Maybe I'm too used to the Doom/Quake paradign of clearing out a room then moving to the next one. It was quite annoying to clear a room, move to the next one, then turn around a see an enemy coming at you. It completely ruined my suspension of disbelief - where was that zombie supposed to come from?
Again, maybe I missed something - maybe I needed to play Thief, SS1, Deus Ex, etc. to get into the "sneaking around" paradigm. I still have my copy of System Shock 2 - any advice on how to enjoy it? Can it be enjoyed on a laptop? Should I play SS1 first?
Because you aren't giving answers when you talk about religion and politics, only your opinions. This encourages students to voice their own opinions, and soon the Q&A period is dominated by everyone feeling they have to say what their opinion is on the subject. In other words, it turns into talk radio.
Plus, just about the worst thing that could happen before the final exam is for a student to think that you are prejudiced against them because of your differing ideas on religion or politics - do you want to spend your summer vacation with lawyers and the dean's board?